As I write this, I am putting finishing touches on one of the most ambitious projects I have ever attempted. I am setting the book of Romans to music. Fortunately, perhaps, I did not stop to fully calculate what I was intending to accomplish. Now, at the end, I have taken time to do so. Romans is composed of 433 verses. Four hundred and thirty three… And these are not just “Jesus wept” mini-verses. Paul packs these verses as densely as a butcher stuffs meat into a sausage skin. Into 433 verses he has crammed 9,422 words. That’s an average of 21.75 words per verse. I broke the book down into passages ranging from one to fourteen verses long. By the time it was over, I had composed 122 songs. I tell you this story, not to boast, but to inspire you. You see, my Musical Romans was not built in a day. By my calculations, this project has taken me somewhere between three and four years. The good news is that I did not achieve it by back-breaking effort. No brain cells were destroyed in the making of this collection. Rather, Musical Romans emerged very slowly—15 minutes here, an hour there, two songs one week, but none the next. Through a series of many small, unimpressive efforts I inched up the side of Mount Romans, until one day, almost unexpectedly, I poked my head up over the summit. The approach I used on Romans is called “incrementalism”. Incrementalism is the technique of tackling a large project just one tiny step at a time. You chip away at it, slowly but stubbornly, until there are, finally, no more tasks left to do. Until you done did it.
Incrementalism, of course, is not always the best possible strategy. Some jobs have to be done yesterday. With these, we go crazy, burning lots of time and energy to make that happen. A few years back, I repainted the inside of a house, mostly by myself, in a week. We had to get it on the market right away. This “pedal to the metal” approach worked, but came at a price. It was stressful, to say the least. Incrementalism, on the other hand, when possible, comes with some significant advantages.
What are the advantages of incrementalism, or as I shall call it the “slow but stubborn approach” ?
1. The slow but stubborn approach allows me to tackle projects that I would otherwise not have time to take on.
When I painted the house in one week, I did it by using my vacation time. I dropped all my normal responsibilities. That’s a luxury though, that is not usually available. Incrementalism allows us to break a many hour project into small pieces—a few minutes here or there. This, fortunately, is a sacrifice of time that’s not usually hard to make.
2. The slow but stubborn approach allows me to get started
Just beginning a large project can be intimidating. It’s easy to procrastinate, whether from fear or from weariness. Incrementalism helps us to take the plunge. We stop just talking about doing something and do it. Maybe we can’t handle a two-hour effort, but fifteen minutes is manageable. This leads to the next point:
3. The slow but stubborn approach allows me to build momentum
Once we can see our project beginning to take shape, even though the shape is still small, this encourages us to keep going. We gain a bit of confidence and excitement. We’ve tasted some success and now we want more.
4. The slow but stubborn approach limits the stress that the project has upon me
Life has plenty of other stresses, and we’re limited in how much stress we can handle. Incrementalization keeps the project from burning us out too quickly, since it keeps the demands fairly light. Fifteen minutes requires far less energy than five hours.
5. The slow but stubborn approach allows for a higher quality of work
Because we’re not rushing or exhausted, we’re less likely to cave in and “just get it done”. We can take more time to revise and to refine. And we gain enough distance in time to see our work more objectively. This, in turn, allows us to do a better job of living up to our true potential. Our best work is seldom produced during a rush job.
6. The slow but stubborn approach makes it more likely that we’ll take on future projects.
I’m glad that I painted the house in one week, but I hope that I don’t have to do it again. By the end, it was a painful exercise of my will. On the other hand, when I’m done with Romans, I will start another Bible book. The journey has pushed me, it’s true, but there has been enough pleasure in it to make me want to try again. As they say, life is a marathon, not a sprint. To live fully, we will need to take on significant projects more than once or twice. Now, let’s get practical and ask a second question:
How can I make the most of the slow but stubborn approach?
1. I make the most of this approach when I match it to the proper projects
Some projects can be done gradually, but others need quick execution. Men, if you’re going to tear up the bathroom to remodel it, don’t take two years. Not a good way to keep Momma happy. On the other hand, an important, but non-urgent project is often a candidate for the slow but stubborn approach. You may, for example, want to straighten up the whole house, but feel overwhelmed by the task. This approach makes it more manageable.
2. I make the most of this approach by trying to set aside a regular, predictable time slot for a particular project
This isn’t absolutely necessary, nor is it always possible, but having a regular time slot significantly increases our chance for success. What this approach requires, to succeed, is discipline, and discipline is easier to gain if we can build a habit. This is where the tiny steps aspect of the approach is so useful. While finding two hours free is less predictable, finding fifteen minutes isn’t usually that hard. And, if you keep at it, those fifteen minute bits of work eventually add up to hours of accomplishment. This is my 149th essay and, usually, I have written them for only fifteen to thirty minutes at a setting. I have just kept doing it for years.
3. I make the most of this approach by being patient about gaining closure
It is fun to complete a project, but that will take a while with the incremental approach. Learn to enjoy the small advances of the moment—the extra paragraph you’ve written, or the small closet that you were able to clean. Find your reward during the journey. Don’t postpone it until you arrive.
4. I make the most of this approach by choosing important, but non-urgent projects
You can certainly use incrementalization on any type of project, including putting together that 1000 piece puzzle you haven’t found time for. That’s fine. But I would suggest using it also for parts of your life that are important, but not urgent. These might include areas like advancing your education, studying the Bible more thoroughly, sorting out all the junk in your house, reaching out to family and friends you’ve lost contact with, developing a skill you’ve always wanted to have, learning an instrument, and so on. These sort of achievements can bring extra strength and richness to your life, but are easy to ignore in the crush of day to day duties. So try taking tiny steps up your mountains. This will allow you to move past simply keeping up with life and begin to chase a few dreams again. Some of those dreams really are possible if you learn to take them one slow but stubborn step at a time.