In the gloomy month of February, it’s easy to slump into a state of inertia. If that’s how the shortest month makes you feel, don’t despair! There’s one easy-to-learn technique that will help you conquer even the most daunting task, at home, at work, or anywhere else: the Swiss Cheese Method.
What is the Swiss Cheese Method?
My husband just explained it to me, to spare me from despairing over my lengthy to-do list. All you have to do is tackle any big challenge by eroding it one tiny hole at a time. Disregard the larger task and focus instead on smaller, more manageable chunks. Need to spring-clean the whole house? Start by cleaning just one window. Overwhelmed by the state of your garden? Focus on weeding a single flowerbed.
Stick at it, and before you know it, you will have eroded so many holes in your apparently insurmountable task that it now looks like a Swiss Cheese – full of holes, and about to crumble to nothing before your eyes.
Do enough of these small tasks and you’ll have no cheese left at all.
Which suits me perfectly, because, as my friends already know, I really don’t like cheese.
Postscript
This system also applies to training for a long-distance run, such as the HU5K Run on Saturday 14th June. You’ll find more ideas to help you prepare for this famous Hawkesbury Upton Fun Run its website at www.hu5K.org, where you’ll also be able to register for the 2014 Race which will take place on Saturday 14th June.
(This post first appeared in the Hawkesbury Parish News, February 2014 edition.)
Great advice and very timely as I look in despair at the state of my desk this morning and everything I have to do – I shall put your words into action!
Good luck to you with that, Georgia Rose!
You don’t like cheese?!?! How can you even be English??
My husband constantly despairs of me, Laura – he loves cheese and doesn’t understand how anyone can live without it!
I like the sound of that – the Swiss cheese method. Definitely my way of doing things.
Hope it does the trick for you!
Love this idea – off to start swiss-cheesing the preparation for this author reading thing I have at the local library tomorrow night! Hopefully, I’ll be cheese free by the time I walk through the door.
I hope it went well for you, Francis! 🙂
Great advice, thanks Debbie! 🙂
My pleasure, Elaine – thanks for stopping by here!
Thanks, Debbie. I love the Swiss cheese method and often advocate it to my students when they’re feeling daunted by the mountain of revision ahead. There’s the salami method too of course but I prefer Swiss cheese.
Ah, I’d forgotten the salami method – but Swiss cheese has to be a much healthier option! 😉