One of the most valuable lessons I’ve ever learned throughout all of my schooling, that includes two master’s degrees, was from my third grade teacher, Mrs. Davis, and an assignment she gave us on writing down instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
The task was go home and write all the steps to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Quite honestly, I thought it was the easiest homework assignment I was ever going to have. I was going to nail this thing.
This was an easy A.
I did that homework. I came back in the next day. And when it came time to turn in our assignments, Mrs. Davis had everybody fold up their paper, put it in a box. She mixed it up and then people would go to the front of the room. They had to pull out one of these instructions and all of the things that you needed to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich were in the front room. That was a knife, bread, peanut butter, Jelly, I think that’s really it. I remember that really well because it was Wonder Bread back in the day.
Anyway, I don’t remember who pulled out my homework assignment, but I remember being so excited that I was going to nail this thing. But here was the rules. The person could not improvise. They must follow the exact thing that you wrote down on your instructions. And I was so sad because I forgot to put spread the peanut butter or spread the jelly. I took it for granted.
And they missed that step. And that was a really bad peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So what’s the lesson in this? When you have something to do, regardless of what it is, if it is a small task, big task, whatever it is, start by writing down the first thing you need to do and then think of every step and write it down because you’re much more likely to get things started on a task, especially on something that’s big, when you see the small manageable steps required to complete it.
This will also help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and maintain momentum and ultimately execute in a big way, which leads to you being more productive. And the bonus, when you break all those steps down, you know each thing that you need to do and you won’t get a crappy peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Give this a try to boost your productivity.
Your move.
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