{"id":84524,"date":"2020-09-24T14:25:22","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T14:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/?p=84524"},"modified":"2020-10-27T13:35:41","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T13:35:41","slug":"elephant-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/elephant-eating\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant Eating"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”1\/1″][vc_single_image media=”84445″ media_width_percent=”100″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row unlock_row_content=”yes” row_height_percent=”0″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″][vc_column column_width_use_pixel=”yes” gutter_size=”3″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ column_width_pixel=”1200″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”1″][vc_custom_heading auto_text=”yes” heading_semantic=”h1″ text_font=”font-875198″ text_size=”fontsize-211028″ text_weight=”400″ text_space=”fontspace-111509″ text_color=”color-165260″]Automatic Heading Text[\/vc_custom_heading][uncode_info_box items=”Reading_time,Categories” text_size=”fontsize-154105″ text_weight=”400″ text_transform=”uppercase” separator=”bullet”][vc_column_text]HOW do you eat an elephant? An old question beloved of many managers.<\/p>\n

The answer is deceptively simple \u2013 why, one bite at a time of course.<\/p>\n

Many jobs seem large so we just put off doing them, usually by justifying to ourselves we need a good amount of time to get stuck in.<\/p>\n

Well guess what? That time never seems to arrive as we find lots of other \u2013 and smaller \u2013 things to do first.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s make our big job a series of small jobs instead.<\/p>\n

Look at what has to be done and break it down into a set of smaller, and much less intimidating, tasks.<\/p>\n

So maybe you have a year of filing to do and you know it is a full day of work ahead of you. And you do not want to do it, even though you need documents from in that pile.<\/p>\n

Well, try doing a preliminary sort into loose categories \u2013 bank statements, utility bills, vehicle documentation etc.<\/p>\n

Job done. Easy.<\/p>\n

Next job might be to tackle the bank statements \u2013 into order and into a file.<\/p>\n

Job done. Not hard.<\/p>\n

Next job might be the utility bills \u2013 into type, then order.<\/p>\n

Sorted. Quite literally.<\/p>\n

Maybe you still do all this in one go, maybe over time, but all of a sudden the big scary pile in the corner of the office is not so frightening \u2013 and a new habit is established.<\/p>\n

If you would like to receive these generally bi-monthly Thrive in Five newsletters, sign up here.<\/span><\/strong><\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn\u2019t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,122],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nElephant Eating - Thrive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/elephant-eating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elephant Eating - Thrive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn\u2019t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/elephant-eating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thrive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-24T14:25:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-27T13:35:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Five-Factors-to-Team-Success.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1134\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"407\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/elephant-eating\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thrive.co.com\/elephant-eating\/\",\"name\":\"Elephant Eating - 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