Poco a Poco

One of the first phrases I learned when I moved to Madrid was “poco a poco” which literally means “bit by bit”. I didn’t realise at the time, but “poco a poco” is actually one of the keys to learning and productivity, and today I am going to share with you this hugely powerful realisation.

I was watching a quiz show recently, and they were discussing the late female novel writer Dame Barbara Cartland who wrote and had published a world record 23 novels in one year, and wrote 723 novels in her lifetime.

Think about that for a moment, writing 23 books in one year.

What do you imagine the process was?

For me, I assumed it was likely to have been a lady who was so passionate and immersed, that the rest of her life suffered, perhaps she spent days at a time without sleep…

The reality however is that she only worked on them for approx 30 mins per day, often between the hours of 1:00 and 1:30

This is where we go wrong when we try and achieve or learn something. We get excited about it on day one, dive in headfirst, and by the end of day three we are bored and move onto something else.

With today’s society, we want everything instantly, and so the problem is even worse: if we want to lose weight we look for ways to do it in a few days, if we want to earn more money we look for a quick solution (lottery is a perfect example).

So here is what I would recommend:

Next time you set yourself a goal, whether it be to DO or to LEARN something… ensure that you break the goal down poco a poco. Instead of asking yourself what the maximum you can do on it, look for the minimum.

E.g instead of aiming to do 20 hours per week, do an hour per day.

This is not only more realistic, but more specific, and in smaller chunks you will be far more focused.

Also, by breaking things into bite-size chunks, you can help prevent things from becoming boring, so this will also keep you motivated.

I was once asked: “How do you eat an entire Elephant?”

Answer: “One mouthful at a time”

So next time you are setting a goal, remember, poco a poco.

All the best.

Dean