Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1174IR // #c1174Synthesis

"'Method,' said the Reverend Richard Cecil, 'is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one.'" "'The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once;'"

— In our words · Source: Self-Help (Samuel Smiles)

[Use when]

You have ten things open and none of them is getting done.

[Why it matters]

Cecil never left a task half done to return to later. De Witt's version was "One thing at a time": think of nothing else until the current dispatch is finished.

Filed under situations:When you’re building the thing, not just planning it

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