I was working with a client recently and they were struggling with task initiation in a project. Part of the work was to research and find images which they found interesting and engaging. The other part of the work was to write copy to accompany the images, resources and artefacts. The research always happened first and was enjoyable. When that was complete, the job of writing the copy followed which was tedious. After some exploration around the tasks, and feelings and thoughts relating to them, we came up with a plan.
My client agreed to try bringing the fun tasks and boring tasks together. They created a document within the project folder right at the beginning. Every time they found an image or located the relevant information they would would curate it and also write a little bit of copy relating to it in the document.
By using this technique my client was able to work on the project happily with no dread about the stages. The copy was written in small chunks which took away the overwhelm, and the whole project was more enjoyable as a result.
I started to think about how we could use this technique in other contexts. A lot of people exercise and listen to music or drive and listen to podcasts. So I think task merging is already a thing. Perhaps we can get more creative with it – what tasks might you merge?
