When problems feel too big, solve a smaller one completely

A local clinic struggled with long patient wait times. The director kept asking for a full overhaul, but teams were overwhelmed by the complexity. One nurse manager proposed a smaller target: reduce check‑in delays during the 8–9 a.m. rush. They mapped the hour, timed each step, and discovered a pileup at the insurance verification screen. The fluorescent lights hummed as they tested a simplified script and pre‑arrival link for frequent patients.

In three mornings, the wait at the bottleneck dropped by six minutes. That didn’t fix the lab delays or exam room turnover, but it proved two things. First, a small win was possible. Second, they could measure it. A receptionist told a story in the break room about a regular who joked, “Did you folks install a turbo button?” Morale ticked up, and the team picked the next slice: lab draw handoffs.

There’s a similar pattern in schoolwork. A student drowning in chemistry didn’t try to “get better at chemistry.” She set a goal of perfecting the next set of twenty nomenclature terms. She wrote them on cards, tested them aloud while her tea cooled, and retested two days later. The test felt different because the clutter was smaller. She smiled at a B+ that used to be a D and kept slicing.

This approach works because complex systems reveal leverage points under close inspection. The theory of constraints suggests improving the bottleneck first yields the biggest overall gain. Behaviorally, small, completed tasks deliver quick feedback and reinforce action through progress, not perfection. Momentum compounds, and the big problem becomes a stack of solved small problems.

Write your giant goal in one clear sentence, then deliberately pick a tiny piece you can finish this week. Solve that small piece as if it’s the whole job, verify the result with a simple test, and note exactly what changed. Use the lesson to choose the next adjacent slice, keeping each one small enough that completion feels obvious. Keep score on a single page so you can see momentum building. Start with a slice so small it feels almost silly, then let the early win pull you forward tomorrow.