When I was little, I used to love to eat chocolate biscuits from the outside in.

I would nibble around the edges and work my way to the middle. It was fun to take it in sections and break it down into its component parts, rather than crunching through the whole thing.

It’s still my favourite approach for most things!

I find that I make the most progress in life and work when I nibble around the edges and work steadily.

It suits me to break things down into smaller steps, to do a bit and pause, to reflect and readjust. It’s a process I really enjoy.

When I forget this I can set myself up for failure. I make the mistake of setting myself a lovely goal - something I really want to do - and then making it too big of a task in too small of a time.

Inevitably I feel overwhelmed, hit a proverbial wall, and suddenly it doesn’t feel like such a great thing to do anymore.

There’s too much to tackle, all at once. So I stop.

It’s much easier - and more sustainable for me - to start something by nibbling around the edges.

It’s much more fun to break it down into smaller steps, and see how it unfolds.

It’s a much more relaxing process to build it over time, rather than all at once, fast.

I’m taking this approach with a few projects at the moment:

Adding tags and categories to the weekly reflections on my website (suddenly there are over 100!).
A training course with 12 hours of video content.
Our house, which feels very different now that our family is in a new phase.

So, if you’re a nibbler, remember that small changes, integrated over time, can have huge benefits. That you can start small and build from there. That you can work it out one step at a time.

You can take this approach for so many things - finding what’s next, creating more mental space and calm, working through big decisions.

The challenge along the way is to manage our minds - the voice that tells us we’re behind, the pressure to rush, to prove, to fix it once and for all.

And if you’re a cruncher? Love a big challenge and enjoy the pressure to get it done all at once? Go ahead and dive straight in :-)

Are you a nibbler or a cruncher?

And what can you learn about how you work best from your approach to eating biscuits?

Wishing you all a week of nibbling or crunching your way forward,