Originally published in Medium.
Medium
As a developer, I felt stuck countless times during project development. Whatever your profession is, you might have experienced this feeling yourself, I bet.
Regardless if it is work-related or in a personal endeavour, you usually start projects very enthusiastically.
However, when a specific task feels too overwhelming, you tend to lose focus, procrastinate, and sometimes even question your very decision of pursuing a career in your current field.
But not all is lost. I want to share with you a simple way that will greatly help you overcome technically-challenging projects.
Whether you are writing the lyrics of your next song, drafting a business plan, or developing an app, applying this method will help you finish your most complicated tasks.
I call this method: Elementary Task In Progress (ETIP).
Elementary Task in Progress
What do I mean by elementary? Let’s take a look at the Collins Dictionary definition.
Elementary: Something that is very simple and basic.
Thus, by definition, an elementary task is a very simple and basic task that is hardly broken down into smaller, easier steps.
The task in progress should always be elementary so that its execution is straightforward.
Let me clarify this further by asking you a question: “What is the most basic step you can do to get closer to finishing your complicated task?”
Identify that step. Turn it into a task on its own. Work on it.
That’s your ETIP.
If you are stuck in your project because the task in progress is too complicated, chances are, your task is not an ETIP. Turn it into an ETIP by applying the following steps.
- Break the task in progress into simpler, more basic steps.
- For each individual step, break it up even further until it is in its most elementary form. That's your ETIP.
- Pick the first `ETIP` and start working on it.
- Once done with your first ETIP, move to the next one.
Never work on a task that is not an ETIP!
Remember, the task in progress should always be so elementary that its execution is straightforward.
Do you feel that your next task is too complicated? Time to break it down into a series of ETIPs.
A Real-World Example
Let’s say you are part of a team that is building an online banking app.
You are the person tasked with implementing the user profile screen. You receive a design mock-up (i.e. what the profile screen should look like) and a user story (i.e. the different actions the user can perform).
The user story goes like this.
- A user can upload their personal picture.
- A user can check and edit their personal info: home address, social security, ID and tax numbers.
- The user can check and edit their bank account details.
The given user story is made up of three main tasks. You picked the first task from the above list and started working on it.
Soon, you discovered that you have no idea how to request permission to access the photo library on the user’s device. You are also not sure how to save the selected picture.
You see, the first task is far from being an ETIP. Time to apply the ETIP method.
Task 1 breakdown
A user can upload their personal picture can be broken up into the following.
1 - Get access to the user’s device’s photos library.
2 - Select a picture from the list of available photos.
3 - Render the selected photo inside the placeholder.
4 - Save the photo in the database.
5 - Make a network request to display the picture every time the user navigates to the profile screen.
We just broke task 1 into five steps. Is step 1 an ETIP? It does not seem like it. Let us further break step 1 down into simpler, basic steps.
Step 1 breakdown
The step Get access to the device photo library can be broken into.
1.1 - Ask permission to access the user’s device’s photos library.
1.2 - If permission is granted, launch the device’s photo library.
1.3 - If permission is not granted, return a message to the user saying that permission to access the photos library is denied.
Step 1 is now made up of three simpler steps. Can you break these steps even further? Maybe you can. However, in my experience, this is enough to start working on each step with simplicity. But if you can, break each step even further until it is in its most elementary form.
Pick step Ask the user for permission to access their device photos library. This is now your ETIP. Start working on it.
Conclusion
Use the ETIP method every time a task feels too overwhelming. Break your task into basic and simple steps that you can execute easily.
While it is almost unavoidable that you will encounter challenging and complex projects that are made up of complicated tasks, you should not work on a task unless you make sure its completion is simple.
The ETIP method will help you to always progress in completing your projects no matter how big the challenges you are faced with.
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