How to eat an elephant one bite at a time, or learning to manage a big project

“Have you ever eaten an elephant?” I asked them. The older ones looked at me with big, puzzled eyes, and Simone burst out laughing and said, “Well, no!” I added, “Do you know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” So we made a game plan for the week. It's the kind of thing we adults do in our heads when we have a big job to tackle. But since our kids have no access to what goes on in our heads, Les Belles Combines created a printable that lets us model our organizing method. Let me explain:

1. First step: take stock of the tasks to be done, or size up the elephant to be eaten

First, let's write down everything that needs to be done, then put those tasks in order of priority. In our case, we decided it was best to sort the puzzles and board games last, because we were likely to find pieces all over the game boxes and toy chests. Little ones do have the annoying habit of dumping out every box and scattering the pieces all over the house!

2. Second step: break the tasks into several steps, or figure out how many bites it will take to eat our big elephant

Next, let's break the tasks down into several steps. Since the basement playroom is big and full of bins for sorting toys, we decided to split the job into four steps: sorting the dress-up box, tidying the play kitchen corner, sorting the toy bins on the floor and sorting the toy bins on the shelves.

3. Third step: schedule the tasks over time, or make sure we eat our elephant slowly so we don't make ourselves sick

Doing all of that in one day is just too much! To avoid discouraging the kids and to keep them motivated, we decided to spread everything over a week: two bites on Monday, two on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, one bite on Thursday and one last one on Friday. We then wrote each task on our family planner where everyone could see it, to remember what had to be done each day, and we attacked the elephant.  In the end, the kids (and the parents!) found it much less painful than they'd expected. It would be a lie to say it all happened without a fuss, in joy and jubilation, but I'm sure the kids developed their sense of organization a little more along the way. Then on Friday night, we ordered a pizza to reward ourselves! We'd earned it!

Have an elephant of your own to eat? Download our printable!

HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT ONE BITE AT A TIME

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