When we have a goal in life, whether it’s writing a book, moving house, starting a new business, changing careers, or getting married, these kinds of projects can feel overwhelming. The fight/flight part of our brain (the amygdala) can kick into overdrive very quickly if a project feels too big and insurmountable and we can start to feel anxious.

According to Professor Steve Peters, author of the mental management book The Chimp Paradox, this survival part of your brain is your ‘chimpanzee’.

Your chimpanzee is like a child who screams and tells you everything that can go wrong. This part needs to be resolved, otherwise it will be a constant distraction and will sabotage your attempts to progress and advance your project.

So what do we do to settle this primitive part of our brain? One way is to work in what we call increments. Incremental work means having a goal and breaking that goal down into smaller activities that are easier to accomplish than the goal as a whole. For example, writing a book can be divided into:

1. Brainstorming

2. Research and content creation

3. Outline the book

4. Write the book

5. Editing and revision

6. Amendments

7. Publication

What may seem like a big project at first (writing the book) turns into seven smaller phases, each of which can be broken down into steps and scheduled in your journal or calendar. Working this way means you are instigating change through incremental steps. This, in turn, means you have the tools to ensure you are under just the right amount of pressure to get the job done without feeling overwhelmed. However, there are a few tricks to keep in mind.

Moment

The trick is to find a balance between impatience (wanting to achieve your ambition too quickly) and procrastination (postponing the inevitable). When a project is too big, you run the risk of having a hard time understanding it, and as a result, you may end up putting it off for later or even just scrapping it altogether.

Herein lies the beginning of procrastination because your brain is in an overwhelming state. If there is a time limit on your project, the longer you leave the project, the less time you have to complete it to a high enough standard. You also have less time to get over the inevitable hiccups along the way.

Breaking your project down into steps you can manage from day to day and progressing through those steps incrementally and systematically starts to help you find that balance. When you know how long each step will take, you will know how long the entire project will take. This is very liberating and allows you to plan your life more effectively.

Also, starting the process as soon as possible puts time on your side. The longer it takes to start your project, the more blocks of activity you will need to complete it. The larger these blocks are, the less in control you will feel of your project.

fragmentation

Another trick, therefore, is to strike a balance between taking steps that are too big and too small. The longer your time frame, the more creative you can be with the steps you motto. Your steps should be big enough to keep you motivated, but small enough to make you feel as confident as possible that you’ll complete your entire project on time. You can transfer the steps to paper in plan form, or keep them in your head, depending on whether or not you’re a visual person who needs to see things on paper or in diagram form.

Working this way gives you an enormous sense of control, freedom, and the feeling of having the richness of time on your side. This approach to project and life management is referred to in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) as ‘chunking’. NLP covers the effect on the brain of how we use our language and physiology. Everything can be ‘chunked’, creating larger steps to allow you to be more strategic, or ‘chunked’ to make it easier to manage the details.

The process of incremental change

So the key to incremental change is:

1. Identify what you want to achieve (be clear on your end goal)

2. Divide the goal into parts (phases)

3. Break the phases into smaller and smaller steps until you can get started

4. Schedule the steps in your diary or on your calendar

5. Implement the steps until you reach your goal