I haven't only learned that today. But I'm starting a "Today I've learned…" series of entries, in which I won't be picky about actually having learned something that day for the first time.
I've learned that tiny steps towards a goal may only seem tiny compared to the size of the steps you were or are imagining taking. The are always infinitely larger than no step at all. If you think you should be able to do/finish a task today, you may not. But if you try and only finish it by 50%, you've done what was possible and learned that this task can take longer than you thought. That's two good things. If you image you can do 10% of a task today, but you end up only finishing 1% of it, that's not as tiny of a progress than it may feel. It is only small in comparison of what you imagined before starting. If the task doesn't go as well as imagined, including not as fast, it runs the risk of getting put of because it's no fun, frustrating or doesn't seem worth the effort. That is not making progress. Doing 0.1% of a task today is progress. And still infinitely more progress than planning to do it tomorrow or next week.
There are probably sayings about this "wisdom". It can seem banal. But sometimes it can be very relevant ro be reminded of this fact. Doing the next step is the way to start to do something. If the next step is not clear, thinking or inquiring about the next step is the next step. If it's complicated/many unclear steps are involved, written and drawn plan can help. The next step is the single one thing that you have to do. All the complicated stuff comes after. If that is taking a tool out of a box, that's it. Then you can still think about the next step. If a task seems overwhelming or you're acting as if it does, do just one or two things, then see what comes next. Or do it for only one minute even though you know it'll take fifty times as long. Once you've started, you'll probably do it for more than a minute. If not: Fine, that was the plan. That was still progress.
It is easy to forget about this perspectve. There are ways of reminding oneself of them. But this entry is not about them. Although I didn't intend to go the entry in that direction, I'm going ahead and add an ADHD tag to this to make it clear that I noticed in what direction it went.