How to Break Large Projects (like podcasts) down into smaller tasks

Looking at a large project can be daunting.  It can be scary.  If you’re looking at a project that you don’t think you can ever accomplish then you definitely need to break it down into smaller tasks that you can accomplish and move forward.  Have a listen below.

Transcript

0:00

Hey guys, I’m Brooks and I Mandee. So we’re husband and wife, entrepreneurs and we believe that life and business are a giant adventure and we want to live it with you guys. So let’s get to it.

0:24

Alright guys, hey, in this episode, we’re gonna talk about breaking down large projects into smaller chunks. Hmm, brilliant. Yes, do it. So here’s the thing. We overestimate what we can get done in a week’s time. We think we get all this stuff done. But we underestimate what we can get done in like a year’s time. So like, yeah, in a year, you know, we’re looking at the year and we’re thinking, Okay, I can do X, Y, Z, you can get more than you think you can get more done than you think you can in a year’s time, but I think it comes

1:00

With extreme kind of project management and breaking down projects into chunks, like, if you feel overwhelmed with the idea of tackling a large project, break it down into units, smaller units. So like, that’s what we’re going to talk about right here. So there are three kind of segments or sectors where like, I do this, or we do this or whatever. And it makes it all work. So like in three phases, there’s three things. So like, we’ve produced events. And then I’ve produced Udemy courses, and then even producing this podcast are three really good examples of taking something that can be very overwhelming. It’s a very large item, a very large project. And by breaking it down into smaller chunks, it makes it manageable. Yeah. And people will look at you and say, Oh, my gosh, you’re already so busy. How in the world. How in the world did you do that? Like, how did you find time? Like I have no idea how that works? You know, how did you do that? The answer is to when you’re getting overwhelmed to break it down into smaller chunks. So we’re going to talk about

2:00

About right now this podcast that we’re literally recording this episode this is

2:07

Going to be I think this is like our 10th episode. Here’s the ironic thing. The podcast is not even live yet. Now by the time you listen to this, you’ll hear it. But know that when we’re recording this soundbite this clip for what will be Episode 10. It’s not even a live podcast yet. And so let me go through the process of what we went through for producing this for producing the show. For starters, I don’t like to tell people that I’m going to do something unless I do it. I’m very hesitant to say, I’m going to do X, or I’m going to do y i, hey, I’m going to put out a podcast.

2:48

I did this in the past with a 50 k run that I trained for whatever I was talking to you about it privately maybe right. I’m thinking I’m thinking I might do this. I think I may do this. And that was the words. I would tell

3:00

People, when I decided to do it, I did it right I trained for it. I did it. Same thing with this podcast. So very recently, we I put out a post with the image that we’re using for our cover image for the podcast, and I’ll let people know that hey, so we’re doing this thing. You know, we’re putting out a podcast, we’ve already recorded a episodes, here’s kind of what we’re gonna be talking about. And that was kinda like my introduction into what we’re going to do. It’s not even live yet. Right? Yet. I made that post, I felt comfortable to do it, because we were far enough down the line in what we have going on that, you know, it’s a done deal. So, here, here are the steps that we broke down in order to do it. I know that when I talked to you, Mandy, it was a very overwhelming project, right? Yeah. I immediately said that. I say that honesty. Yeah. I said, hey, do you wanna do a podcast? No, no. Why? Because we have a lot of stuff going on. Right? Right. We don’t have that in my head. We didn’t have the time for it. Right. Yeah, we don’t have the time for it. We didn’t have the time for it.

4:00

So I made you a deal. I said, hey, if you’re willing to sit down with me and record, I’ll handle everything else. Are you willing to do that? And you said, yes. And you said, yes. That was phase one. Right? So that was me. That’s what I had to do with Mandy to get her to say yes. And then I said, Okay, and even me, I even I wasn’t saying, we’re going to put out a podcast and I don’t know if you remember this. I said, hey, we’re gonna, we’re gonna record some stuff together, right? Maybe it’ll turn into a podcast. Yeah, maybe we’ll make it come, you know, like, let’s see what happens. Like we don’t know, we don’t know if it’s going to be good content till we do it. And then when we recorded some episodes, I was like, Man, that’s like valuable stuff. Like I would get value out of that. So we need to share this with other people. Right. And so, you know, internally we kind of made that decision. So step one was for me to get Mandy on board to be willing to put time in her schedule, to sit down and record Okay, just seems like podcasts just seem when you’re listening to them. They just seem so easy.

5:00

Like, Oh, just sit down and do it. But I have learned that there is a lot that goes into it. And I think that’s what happens with people. I think they like the idea of it. Now, let me let me go ahead and say this as well. There are tools today that make the world of podcasting much easier. There are some apps I don’t even know their name. I’ve seen them before. But you can literally record straight from your phone and then upload that podcast. If you guys hear that’s our mascot that’s scratching the floor. That’s our dog Murphy. He scratched he thinks he’s going to China. They’re going to China. And he never gets there. He gives up after a little off but he tries. He tries. So there’s some apps

5:44

Where you can record right now on your phone, upload those boom, you have a podcast. But the thing with that is that you don’t own the data and you’re in less control of that. There’s also like SoundCloud exist out there. Let me go and tell you that, that you can easily record files posted on

6:00

SoundCloud, boom, you have a podcast. Now, if you are wanting a wanting a podcast that pushes out your show to the big players to Apple to Google, to other podcast players, then you have to go a different route, you have to do what we’re doing, which is record these files and then and then upload them to one of those systems. So that’s what we’re doing. So it takes more work. It’s a bigger project to do that, I will admit. So, so I got Mandy on board with me. Okay, let’s call that phase one. Okay, um, step two, I had to research platforms research the platforms that we were going to upload our files to, right so a big one really old. There’s.

6:51

Lipson is a really big platform. That’s kind of been around a long time since kind of beginning a plat. Kind of kind of the beginning of

7:00

Podcasts. There’s a number of other ones that have come onto the market. I actually think that we’re going with a company called Simple cast. It just looks really easy to use. I’ve done some research, I advise you to go out and do your own research. But simple cast is a company that we have decided on. So that was a step that was something that we had to decide to do. Okay. You also have to have the proper equipment in order to record a podcast. Now, don’t get bogged down, don’t get overwhelmed. It can be really simple. So I have I’m sitting right here with Mandy, we have a laptop that’s running this program called audacity, and it is hooked our microphone that just plugs straight into my laptop, and my laptop reads that we’re using a Blue Yeti microphone. I mean, we’ll put a link to that. If you want to check it out. Get it? It’s been really good. It’s very simple. It’s easy to use. To me something that’s easy is great. You don’t have to adjust all these settings. It basically just has a few simple knobs. It’s a plug and play type microphone that plugs in

8:00

USB into your computer, so highly recommend it. So if you are not a audio file and a professional in equipment which I have not get something that’s easy to use, that’s, that’s user friendly. So Blue Yeti microphone, and I definitely suggest and it makes us feel legit, too. It’s like the strict black microphone like you would see in a podcast studio or a recording studio. True. I don’t know, like it true. And this microphone probably around $100 give or take, and you probably get to use one for a little bit less than that a new one for I don’t know, I guess maybe a little more than $100. But just say, you know, ballpark $100 and it’s better quality. So now in the future, we’ll probably actually upgrade.

8:42

We will and actually so I’m gonna I’m gonna fast forward to my number six, I’m actually going to fast forward so the location. So Mandy and I are we actually have a studio set up with a green screen with a higher quality microphone that I produced some other videos and other content for local businesses.

9:00

In

9:01

there’s a learning curve there for me to be able to produce that for us, like, I don’t know how to use the mixer with the, with the computer, I don’t have a sound guy at partner that I work with to produce those videos, he’s doing that job. So I would have to learn something additional. And we would have to drive to a different location in order to record so we choose instead to record from our call at our home office, our it’s basically our living room. And so every now and then you’re going to hear our dog in the background, our mascot for our show. But we’re willing to do that because, well, we wanted to move forward. This is something that like if there’s something that’s going to stop your progress, for example, like a microphone or the location, just get moving, get going forward and break your project down into chunks and conquer those chunks and you’ll be good to go.

9:55

So I mentioned Audacity. So audacity is the program

10:00

That we’re using to record the file right now.

10:04

It’s very easy to use, I highly recommend it. I had no idea how to use it. So one things I had to do before I ever got Mandy to get her scheduled to sit down with me was I had to figure out okay, do I know how to use this like when I sit down with you and plug in the microphone, I want to make sure that we’re moving forward we’re recording a file. So I played around when I recorded some files and certain some music and you know, watch some videos on how to use it. And it is barely user friendly. So I figured it out. Okay, so that was a step. You know, I call that a step in the in the process. That was one of the, the units that I broke this giant project down into, so you’re kind of a techie guy. Do you think someone like me who is non techie? Do you think someone like me could figure it out? Yes, um, yeah, for sure. Now, you would have to, you would need to watch some videos and be sitting with it to practice which is exactly what I did. I watch videos like an over

11:00

View of audacity, how to use it how to do this how to do that? And I said, Okay, what are the things I need to know how to do right? I need to know how to record from my microphone. I need to know how to like, edit those clips, I need to know how to make a new file. How do I insert music and stuff like right? So if you search YouTube will be a great resource for anyone that’s looking to you know, figure out how to use Audacity it is a completely free program. It’s Yeah, it’s open wire. So there’s no is that the right term open Where? Anyway, it’s completely free. So there’s no there’s no cost open source Excuse me. I don’t know why I couldn’t think of that open source. It’s an open source software. So there’s no cost for you to use that program. So I do highly recommend it. Okay, I’m using everyone but you know, I’ve learned to use Audacity it’s a major program that people mention and talk about when recording podcasts and other type things.

11:52

Now, moving on still haven’t recorded an episode yet. So in this we’re going through our steps still haven’t recorded one episode.

12:00

Yet, what are we going to talk about? Oh, yeah, that’s a hard one, right? Actually. Yeah. So I made I made you help me with this a little bit. We brainstormed a list of Okay, what are topics? What are things that we can teach? What are things that we’re going through as a business owner? Couple is married business partners, what are you learning? What am I learning? What projects are we doing? You know, how can we add value to people’s lives with what we’re going through? And I said, hey, we’re not going to record one episode until we come up with like, 50 ideas of what potentially we could even talk about. Right? So we did that we had a Google Doc, we shared it with each other. You threw some ideas on there, you know, I threw ideas on there. Once we hit a certain level. I felt comfortable, okay. We’re not you know, we’re not going to run out of topics. We’re going to be okay, so we can talk about these items. And, um, and we did that so then.

12:55

Now we can record you’re ready, sir. Yeah.

13:00

Really crazy in this process of creating a podcast, we’ve been talking now for about 13 minutes on items that we needed to do before we ever hit the record button on one episode for a podcast, right? So like, just let that sink in guys, if you were overwhelmed by a big project, it’s okay. It is a big project. You can’t just walk into a room and record a podcast. Now you can hire podcast recording companies to produce your show. If you have the funds for that, absolutely. Like that’s, that’s a way to get it done. And I would highly recommend that if you’re a business and you don’t have as much time or you don’t have the energy or interest in learning how to do it yourself. Hire a company to do it. I’m here locally. We have a company that deep fried studios that produces podcasts in Mobile, Alabama. You can find one online there may be others.

14:00

You know, companies in your location that do that, but find those companies and do it but so

14:09

We’ve never recorded an episode. Now we’re recording episodes. Okay, so maybe not we’re sitting down. We’re recording every other Tuesday 8am. We have booked from about 8am to 10am. We’re recording we’ve recorded two episodes every time every time we’ve done it. We’ve done two at a time, right? And that’s worked out really well. We didn’t have that it wasn’t in stone. We didn’t have a plan. Just the first time we recorded one. I said, hey, do you wanna do another one? She said, yeah. And then every two weeks, we’ve recorded two at a time, and it’s just worked. It’s been perfect. The topics have changed to like, they have been around what we are currently going through. We’ve had some topics that we had, you know, pre-planned on our list that we made, but then we’ve had some things that were like, wow, you know, you’ll say like, Oh, this could be a great podcast topic more in the middle of a conversation. So things like that have popped up and I think they’ve made me great topics. Yep. I agree.

15:00

100% we are actively we have an active list, I use a tool called Trello. So 100 times a day, I’m adding stuff to all my different tasks and projects and to dues but like, yeah, one of those exactly is podcast topics. So yeah, and I think exactly what you said, as we’re in the middle of stuff. You know, we’re thinking, oh, wow, yeah, that we can teach in this because we just learned, we, you and I just learned in the middle of that project, so we could teach others what we what we just went through, or how can you write? How can we add value to others? Um, Alright, so

15:37

Now, let me fast forward. So here we are. We’ve recorded eight episodes. Let’s just say at that point eight episodes, we recorded eight. Now, just to add a few more details. I then had to figure out Oh wait, we need an intro some kind of outro So in the first eight, there was no intro we then recorded an intro

16:00

I decided to wait I’ve got to find music. So when we had a staycation recently, I found the music. And I turned all of those eight audio clips where we had conversations. I turned all of those into final episode. Files, right, so now we have eight episodes.

16:18

Still no podcast. So we have no podcast launched on simple cast. But after we recorded those eight, I felt comfortable to announce to the public. Hey, guys, so Mandy and I

16:33

Have decided to launch a podcast, we’ve recorded eight episodes, etc. And I just made that post within this last week. Yeah, now it’s official. All still not having a launched podcast. I mean, I just I just want people to understand you can have a really giant project and it’s not like you’re not we’re not we’re not even there. Right. And we didn’t even talk about it until I had eight finalized

17:00

Episodes Yeah, of this podcast. I didn’t even tell anyone that we were doing it. And so that’s crazy. Now what we’re gonna do, and I haven’t decided how many we’re gonna post, so we’re not just gonna post one. And I haven’t told you the money but like, so what we’re doing is we will put up

17:16

my thinking is six, but we’ll discuss this six to eight, whatever we’re going to put up at one time when we launch the podcast, okay, reason being is because if someone listens to an episode, and they like it, and they’re like, oh, cool, let me let me see what else they have. Let me hear something else. If we only have one and we start, right so I want to go ahead and add a library of our FSR so that people can go in and if they enjoy your life, something making listen to some other content right away and then we’ll put us on a schedule of every, I don’t know to two weeks or something release a new episode or whatever. So.

17:54

So here we are, those who are steps and so if you are having

18:00

Have

18:01

A problem with looking at your project, maybe it gives you extreme anxiety, or a great sense of overwhelm. Or

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You have no idea how you could ever do something like that.

18:24

Break that project down into chunks. And I mean, get a physical sheet of paper and write down. What is it that you’re gonna have to learn? In order to do that project? What are the tasks that you’re going to have to do? If you, if you break it down into a certain number of items, say it’s 12. And that item number two, you’re like, well, that’s kind of complicated. You know, that’s not just let me sit down and do that if you can’t just sit down and do one of the items or take a moment or take an

19:00

Hour and just do that item. It’s still too complicated and you need to break that item because that item isn’t advice. Yeah, because that item isn’t an item, that item is its own mini project that’s beneath your large project, right, you need to take that item, I’m gonna call that a mini project. And you need to break that down into its own individual steps only, only when you were looking at the entire project. And you can make it like an outline like you used to write a school paper for all I care, you know, with a, you know, ABC, big ABC and then underneath that 123 and then underneath that a B if you need to break down those individual items. Do it like that just so that you can visually see what it is you need to do. Only when you break down that project into individual things that can be accomplished and you and you’re going to only you’re going to know the order that you need to do those items in you know in order to learn and master certain things.

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Only when you do that, can you see the project for what it is and assign time to each one and so on.

20:00

On saying if you know in a week, you will overestimate what you can do. But in a year’s time, you’re going to underestimate what you can do. So if you take that project and you break it down, you will be amazed at what you can do in a year’s time. That is excellent advice. Because, you know, I would look at something like a podcast or an event or anything like that, I would look at that. And I would say, nope, not doing it can’t do it. Don’t you know, don’t want to add anything else to play. But you actually have taught me this method of taking something and breaking it down. So it is feasible. If it’s something that you actually really want to do, you will find a way to do it. So that you know that’s your method. It’s actually really good. Thank you. Yeah, and, and let me just say in everyday life, we’ll kind of end with this in everyday life. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, because like every day can be like a project, right? Like you have all this stuff that you have to do. I tell you this often I’m like, just I find it very soothing. And it helps me when I’m feeling

21:00

Overwhelmed with all the things that I have to do. I get a sheet of paper even though I use Trello I use this digital method I get a piece of paper and I even from Trello I write the list I don’t know why but I read it on paper from Trello Yeah, I visually can see in front of me What are all these things that I need to do? It instantly becomes less overwhelming and I’m able to

21:21

go through them right one by one choose like what’s the most important thing for me to do right now? Right so let’s say that I can’t do all those today. I may not be able to write but I can one by one figure out what’s the most important thing for me to work on right now? What’s the one thing I can do right now and I do it and then when I do it, you know what I do? What do you do? I scratch that sucker. Oh, yeah. Satisfying I put a line through it. Yeah. And then checkmark beside it. Sometimes a double check more. I don’t know. I do whatever. It feels really good. Yeah. And then I move to the next item.

21:53

And so that’s been really useful for me and it physically makes me feel better if I have anxiety or over

22:00

Well, I am physically calmed by doing that. And so if you have that issue or problem, or you can get overwhelmed with your, with your items that you have to do in a day or a week or whatever, I advise you to get a sheet of paper and put a pin to it and write down what you have to do. You actually remind me of that quite often, when I’m in my swirls of,

22:24

There’s so much going on. There’s so much to do. And then you like, Oh, just write it down. I’m like, Oh, it’s actually not that bad. Exactly. Yeah. So whether it’s a project or whether it’s your life, whether its business or life, as you think, you know, by now, maybe not think that life and business is one giant adventure, they all flow together. And so, you know, we want you guys to live that with us and roll through it and enjoy that adventure. So,

22:48

Man, thanks. Thanks for being with us. And we’ll see you guys next time. Yeah, peace out.

23:00

Guys, thanks for hanging out with us. We’d love for you to share it with a friend review it and don’t hesitate to reach out and say hello. You can connect with us and see the resources that we talked about at destroyed the box with.us that’s www.destroytheboxwith.us.

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