Use “the salami technique” to overcome procrastination

Last week I offered up the 5-minute technique to overcome procrastination and I promised I’d share a couple more in this week’s blog posts.  So here’s another approach I’ve used quite successfully: I call it “the salami technique”.  I find this particularly useful when the task seems too big or overwhelming and for that reason I seem to lack direction.  Now I know that the name sounds odd but it refers to the fact that salami, as a roll, is decidedly unappetizing, but once you slice it up and pile the thin slices on to your sandwich, it suddenly becomes much more enticing and tempting.  In the same way, if you take your task or your project and slice it into smaller and smaller pieces by function or time, you will find that it will become easier to handle, or more interesting to start with, or you’ll be able to visualize the end result more clearly.  By “slicing” the task into smaller pieces, you’ll find that it isn’t as big or overwhelming or as uninteresting as you thought.  So the salami technique is – slice it up!

Well, what do you think?  Do you have other things that you do to overcome procrastination?  Do share.