Work in Increments to Beat Anxiety

Over at 43 Folders, writer Brian Oberkirch looks at how one of his favorite artists beats his worst tendencies to be intimidated by the hugeness of the work in front of him. By dividing his work into a grid and breaking it into smaller incremental tasks—like knitting a sweater—he sidesteps his anxiety.

What I found that one of the nice things [about] working incrementally is that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single day. Today I did what I did. You can pick it up and put it down. I don’t have to wait for inspiration. There are no good days or bad days. Every day essentially builds positively on what I did the day before.

As noted in the post, this method also calls to mind the lessons in Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, one of our favorite classic life hacks.