On Short Assignments

Anne Lammott, in “Bird by Bird”, tells us about short assignments, starting with one small bit of writing so as not to be overwhelmed. 

Have you heard how you can eat a whole hippo, one bite at a time? It is the same idea, but for writing, or life. 

Although it isn’t novel by any means, I have found it increasingly important in my ADHD, “mom-brain” riddled mind, to move with small assignments in every area of life. 

Some days this is out of necessity. 

The days when short assignments are most necessary, in my opinion, are the ones where there is so very much to do and you know you won’t get it all done, but you must at least get something done in order to not risk being even more overwhelmed tomorrow. (Or to keep your kid alive, keep your job, etc.)

Sometimes it feels like nothing matters but there is a small chance you might feel minutely better if the dishes were at least done, or you took your kid to the park, or whatever it might be. Try completing one short assignment. At any rate, you will be closer to bedtime than you were before. 

Habits are also created in this way. I have some lovely habits in place that I am quite proud of, and some I am not so proud of, but one day at a time is how you make or break it either way. If you fall off a day, you can get back on track with only one short assignment, which fuels the fire for the next, and so on. If you habit stack your short assignments that can be great, but you still have to take them one task at a time. 

At the same rate, it helps us remember that it’s only today and the here and now that matters.We could all die tomorrow, and that is a reason to accept our humanity, flaws and all. It is not always a reason to skip work, or the gym, or brush your teeth. 

“What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

Perhaps Emerson’s quote is a bit too deep for this piece or meant for something more meaningful. Yet perhaps he meant it exactly for the mundane moments that we face every single day of our life. 

His words, like Anne Lammot’s short assignments, can help us be courageous, and to silence the overwhelm. 

The tasks we completed yesterday, or those we will do later on or tomorrow, aren’t to be taken into account when performing a short assignment.  Only what is present right now, is what matters. So do the damn thing. 

I clean my house, pay my bills, run my errands, and do most other things in this way. If I don’t mentally (or audibly) remind myself to do one thing at a time, I will become the “Roomba cleaner”, bouncing around partially doing things, feeling utterly overwhelmed and unproductive.

Days themselves can be achieved as a short assignment. “If I can just get to the end of Tuesday.” Although I don’t recommend living in this way permanently if you can help it. It gets exhausting when many, many of these days run together, but eventually someday there will be more ease or maybe something interesting will happen, and at the very least you’ve kept on living and being a human and showing up in the world because that is the point. 

I’m struggling not to present all of this in a very bleak way, but I can assure you that short assignments are quite lovely and can lead to a sense of accomplishment, or at least a bit of relief.

Eclectic Purpose is so new, my loves, but with short assignments it is growing. If you have a creative project, or a dream that scares you just enough, I encourage you to begin, as soon as possible, with short assignments. It doesn’t have to be perfect, or for anyone yet but you. 

Thank you, Anne Lammott, and anyone else who has gifted us the concept of short assignments, in any area of life. It is perhaps the thing that makes me most productive, and after reading Bird by Bird I have a name for it and a deeper understanding of it. 

Here’s to short assignments as a whole, but especially just the next one that is upon us…now.