After reading this website, I thought about my everyday life and how many things I do without really thinking about all the steps involved. The first thing I do when I wake up is brush my teeth and use the restroom. If broken down these two tasks probably have more than 20 steps. Next I take a shower and that has at least 20 more steps. Then getting dressed, making breakfast and eating breakfast has more than 50 steps involved. When doing a task analysis on my morning routine I realized that even very simple tasks can become complex if broken down into a step by step process. In the first hour of each day I complete over 100 steps successfully. After analyzing my morning I analyzed the rest of my day and realized that the amount we as humans accomplish in a day is phenomenal. So , if your ever feeling like you don't do much, do a task analysis of your day task by task and you will soon realize that you are accomplishing many many things without even knowing it. Go ahead and break it down you are one busy person.
1 comment:
Your post begs the question, why do we need in depth task analysis on simple or routine activities? Busy, busy, busy is right! In the real world it would seem counter productive to produce a task analysis for anything except the most complex problems or those with great implications.
If common sense is applied, a task analysis must be used to be effective. An occupational therapist may need a task analysis of tooth brushing but a parent or camp counselor would not. In education, where planning time is limited and often interrupted, a detailed task analysis for each part of a lesson is impractical.
Teachers who grasp the art and science of teaching instinctively break down tasks into discrete learning events, while teachers who struggle with this task could learn from a task analysis procedure.
PS) Where did you get the photo of the twisted cedar tree overlooking the ?Badlands? It's beautiful and reminds me of home.
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