How to Break Down Tasks into Smaller Ones

In one way or another, we have all been to a point when we have to accomplish a task that is so large, it’s overwhelming. It can be for work or something personal, but the fact is facing a huge task will need more than just working on it. It’s like conquering your own Goliath. But before you defeat your very own giant, you will need to plan every step, every move. If you are to look closely at the huge task ahead of you, you will realize that it is composed of multiple small tasks. Knowing that you can break down tasks into smaller ones is key to helping you achieve goals and tick every task off of your to do list.

How Dividing Tasks Can Improve Productivity

Breaking down large tasks is not only to help you complete them. More importantly, it’s all about knowing how you can be more productive and use your time and energy wisely. Here are some of the benefits you can reap if you break down tasks.

Improve your focus

With smaller, more manageable tasks, you won’t have to shift your focus frequently, knowing that your huge task has lots of smaller items that need to be done. You might have a lot of microtasks to work on, but by identifying each of these, you can easily focus on completing one task first, then move on to the next ones until you complete all of your microtasks until your whole project is complete.

Give your mind a break

Once you break down tasks, you are basically giving yourself the opportunity to take a breather. For example, you need to come up with a marketing plan for your brand. It’s not as easy as it seems as there are many factors to consider before you can come up with a good marketing plan. But by first identifying all of the steps for building an effective marketing strategy, you won’t have to keep thinking about what to do next. For every microtask that you accomplish, you can take short breaks before proceeding to the next one. This way, you won’t feel burned out having to constantly think about your next move.

Allow you to delegate

Another good thing about breaking down big tasks into smaller ones is that you have the opportunity to delegate and get more done. You can’t always handle everything on your own, especially if you are pressed on time or if you have limited knowledge or skills about something. So if you ever need help, it’s a good idea to identify which part of your tasks you can do on your own and which ones you have to delegate.

Make workflow visualization easier

Visualizing workflow gives you a better perspective of the tasks that you have ahead of you. So if you break down tasks into smaller ones, you get to build a list of microtasks which makes it easier for you to visualize your workload and be able to plan how to tackle whatever huge undertaking you have ahead of you.

How to Break Down Tasks into Smaller Tasks

To break down tasks is not always as easy as it sounds, especially if you don’t know where to begin. Follow these simple steps on how you can break tasks down to smaller portions and start conquering your Goliath. Or you can use ready-made WBS creator solutions.

1. Identify the goal

To better understand the direction you are headed to complete your task, you should first understand what your end goal is. Are you supposed to deliver a specific output or maybe meet a specific criteria? Let’s take the earlier example about your task as being able to come up with a marketing plan for your brand. It’s better to be more specific as to why you need to prepare a marketing plan. Is your goal to get your buyers and site visitors to buy your products? Is it simply to improve your online visibility? Or maybe just to build a community of brand ambassadors to help establish your brand’s identity? Once you have your end goal pinned down, you can now proceed to your next step.

2. Know what needs to get done

Depending on what your goal is, it’s time that you identify the things you need to do to achieve your goal. Create a list of all the necessary steps that you need to take to complete your task. It can be a set of few steps or it might make you realize that you task will take a lot of work, but by listing out your steps, you get to have a better idea of what you need to go through to get to your end goal.

3. Create a visual map

For a better understanding of the microtasks that you have to complete, it’s better to create a visual map of all of your tasks. For this, a visual task management tool such as a Kanban board can come in handy. With a Kanban board, you can easily add Kanban cards for each step and keep track of the progress of each task at a glance.

4. Assign tasks if necessary

If you have too many tasks to handle on your own, you can also make use of your Kanban board to assign your tasks to the people in your team. This way, you get to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. With a virtual Kanban board, you can easily assign each microtask to a teammate. You can also populate each Kanban card with all the necessary information needed to complete a specific task. Additionally, you can add checklists in each card which can help your team monitor what specific items are done and which ones still need to be done.

5. Setup deadlines for each tasks

An important part of setting up your visual map after you break down tasks is setting the deadlines for each task. This helps you stick to your timeline and be able to achieve your goal within a specific time. Setting up a deadline also helps set the tempo for everyone in the team, helping them have a better grasp of the urgency of each task assigned to them.

Break Down Tasks with Kanban Zone

There are various types of visual task management software available online. But depending on what you are working on, there is always a better tool to use to give you a better visibility of your tasks. With Kanban Zone, you get to view all of your tasks on a board, list, summary or timeline format. Check out Kanban Zone now and improve your productivity for any of your personal or professional tasks.