You Don’t Have to Eat the Whole Elephant Today

There’s an old saying: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I use that phrase a lot with fundraisers, usually when someone is behind.

The calls didn’t get made. The CRM entries piled up. Emails sat in the inbox. The caseload review got pushed. Then something urgent came up. Then something else. Suddenly the list feels too big, and we’re not even sure where to start.

Sometimes this pile-up happens because work intensifies. That’s fundraising. It comes in seasons. Sometimes life gets full. A child is sick. A parent needs help. We’re traveling. We have those weeks when every meeting seems to multiply into three more things to do. Or maybe we’re simply tired and don’t have the capacity we thought we would.

None of that makes the work disappear, of course. The list – or in this case, the elephant – is still sitting there.

When we’re overwhelmed, we tend to look at the whole elephant: six weeks of CRM notes, a caseload that needs attention, a string of emails we meant to answer.

Then we tell ourselves we need to “get caught up.”

Start with what we can do

The challenge is that when we’re behind, we probably cannot fix everything today. I have to remind myself of this too (and Kara will tell you she’s the worst about this).

Instead of starting with everything, we can start with what we can do.

Maybe that’s three donor calls. Maybe it’s entering notes from five important conversations. Maybe it’s looking at the caseload and identifying the ten people who most need attention this week.

The point is not to pretend the rest doesn’t matter. It’s to stop letting the size of the whole thing keep us from doing the next thing.

At FourPoints, we believe in growth. Part of growth is learning to extend some grace to ourselves while still moving forward, one thing (or in this case, one bite) at a time. Staring at the giant elephant and feeling terrible about it rarely helps.

Being behind has a way of creating more work

Once we feel behind, we often add another layer to the problem. We feel guilty. We avoid the project because it feels too big. Then more things pile up. Now we’re not just behind; we’re behind and annoyed with ourselves for being behind.

This is where a little perspective helps. While we cannot redo last week, we can decide what happens next.

Sometimes that means lowering the bar for the day. Not permanently. Just enough to get moving again.

Pick the right bite

“One bite at a time” doesn’t mean randomly knocking things off a list just to feel productive. It means starting with what matters and what we can reasonably do today.

For fundraisers, I tend to start with people. Who is waiting for us? Who told us something important that deserves a follow-up? Who have we been meaning to reach out to but keep pushing to tomorrow?

Then we can move to the work that supports those relationships: update the notes, fix the record, send the follow-up.

Small progress still counts

Another thing I’ve noticed is that when we’re behind, we tend to minimize our work with the word “only.” Side note: as a kid, I was not allowed to use that word!

So instead of, “I only made four calls,” maybe it becomes, “I made four calls.” Instead of, “I only cleaned up ten records,” it becomes, “I updated ten records.”

That may sound small, but language shapes how we see progress.

We tend to give ourselves credit only (pun intended) when the whole thing is complete. Most meaningful work doesn’t happen that way. It happens in pieces: a few calls today, a little cleanup tomorrow, one follow-up that leads to the next.

That’s how we get our footing back.

Sometimes, we change the plan

If we are consistently behind, the answer may not be to keep trying harder.

Maybe the list is too long. Maybe too many things have become priorities. Maybe we need help. Maybe something needs to be delegated, delayed, simplified, or dropped.

There’s no prize for doing it all ourselves.

Sometimes the most useful question isn’t, “How do I get all of this done?”

It’s, “What actually needs to get done?”

Or even, “Who can help me get this done?”

Begin again

When we’ve fallen behind, we don’t need a dramatic reset. We don’t need to clear the entire list by tomorrow. We don’t need to make up for every missed call, overdue note, or unfinished task in one frenetic burst.

Sometimes we simply need to begin again.

Pick the next donor. Make the next call. Write the next note. Finish the next small thing. Then do another.

One bite at a time.

It’s not flashy. But it works.