The Power of the Smallest Next Step
How to build momentum by breaking every action down to its minimum viable version
I woke up this morning and did what I always do.
Grabbed the TV remote
Opened YouTube (my algorithm only shows me business and mindset content)
Found Matt Gray talking about his 10-minute morning system
Pulled out my pocket notebook.
Most people would call this procrastination.
I call it calibration.
Because here's what I've learned after years of watching productivity content, building systems, and mostly failing to stick with them.
The difference between doing something and not doing it usually comes down to one thing.
How small you can make the first step.
Gray's system breaks down into five parts, but they all orbit the same core truth.
Your brain is sitting there, paralyzed by the size of what you need to do.
You know you should go to the gym.
Write that proposal.
Send that uncomfortable email.
But the gap between where you are (in bed, anxious, scrolling) and where you need to be (done, accomplished, relieved) feels enormous.
So you don't move at all.
Start With A Brain Dump, Then Take The Tiniest Action
The first part of the system is a two-minute mental cleanse.
You write down everything causing you stress.
Every small task bouncing around in your head.
Every email you've been avoiding.
Every little thing creating mental friction.
Then you pick one thing and take the smallest possible action toward completing it.
Not finishing it. Just starting it.
If you need to respond to that message you've been dreading, you don't write the whole response.
You open the app.
That's it.
If you need to send an invoice, you don't create the invoice.
You just open your invoicing software.
This sounds stupidly simple, and that's the point.
Most productivity advice tells you to prioritize, to focus on your most important task, to eat the frog.
All of that is true and also completely useless when you're stuck.
Because when you're stuck, the problem isn't knowing what to do.
The problem is that what you need to do feels too big.
So you make it smaller.
You make it so small that your brain can't come up with an excuse.
Opening an app takes three seconds.
Your brain can't argue with three seconds.
But here's where it gets interesting - once you've opened that app, once you've taken that first micro-step, momentum starts to build.
Not always.
But often enough that this becomes a pattern you can rely on.
You opened the message.
Well, might as well read it.
You read it.
Might as well type a quick response.
You typed a response.
Might as well send it.
Suddenly the thing that was causing you stress for three days is done, and it took four minutes.
Small Wins Compound Into Big Changes
The second part of the system is what Gray calls the momentum multiplier.
You think about the small wins you've gotten recently.
Then you identify one small win you can get today.
Because progress in life isn't made up of a few massive victories.
It's made up of thousands of tiny wins, stacked on top of each other, compounding over time.
The math here is wild.
if you improve by 1% per day, you end up 37 times better after a year
That's the power of compound growth.
Small improvements, applied consistently, don't add up linearly.
They multiply exponentially.
But you can't compound improvement if you never start improving.
And you can't start improving if the improvements you're trying to make feel too big.
So you make them smaller.
You don't commit to working out five days a week.
You commit to putting on your workout clothes.
That's your small win for today.
Tomorrow, maybe you put on your workout clothes and walk to the gym.
The next day, you put on your clothes, walk to the gym, and do one set.
Each of those is a win.
Each of those builds the identity of someone who works out.
Each of those makes the next step easier.
This is how you build momentum.
Not by making grand commitments you'll break in three days.
But by making commitments so small you'd feel ridiculous breaking them.
Face Discomfort In The Smallest Doses Possible
The third part of the system is the discomfort challenge.
You write down everything currently causing you discomfort.
Then you rank them by level.
Level one might be trying a new food.
Low stakes, minimal long-term consequences.
Level two might be asking your boss for a raise.
Higher stakes, but still contained.
Level three might be quitting your job.
High stakes, major long-term consequences.
Once you've ranked them, you count down from five, then take the smallest action to eliminate that discomfort.
Again, the pattern holds.
The problem isn't usually the discomfort itself.
The problem is how big the discomfort feels.
Asking for a raise feels enormous when you think about the whole conversation.
It feels manageable when you break it down.
First, you research market rates.
That's not uncomfortable.
Then you write down your accomplishments.
Still not uncomfortable.
Then you draft an email requesting a meeting.
Getting warmer, but still doable.
Then you schedule the meeting.
Now you're committed, but you've built up to it.
By the time you're in that meeting, you've already taken ten small steps.
The discomfort hasn't disappeared, but it's distributed across those ten steps instead of concentrated in one terrifying moment.
This applies to everything that scares you.
Starting a business feels impossible.
Registering a domain name feels easy.
Writing a book feels overwhelming.
Writing 200 words feels achievable.
The discomfort doesn't go away.
But when you break it into smaller pieces, it becomes something you can actually move through instead of something that stops you cold.
Ship At 70%, Perfect It Later
The fourth part is the ship messy protocol.
Launch when you're at 70% completion.
Not 100%.
Not perfect.
Not fully polished.
70%.
Because if you wait until something is perfect, one of two things happens.
Either you never ship it, or you ship it so late that the window has closed.
Perfection is expensive.
It costs time, energy, and opportunity.
The difference between 70% and 100% takes as long as getting from 0% to 70%.
But the value doesn't scale the same way.
A 70% version shipped today gets you feedback, iteration, and real-world data.
A 100% version shipped in six months gets you a product that might be solving a problem no one cares about anymore.
So you define what 70% looks like for whatever you're working on.
What's the minimum viable value?
What's the core thing this needs to do to be useful?
Then you build to that point and ship it, with a disclaimer if you need to.
"This is a work in progress. Feedback welcome."
You launch it, you listen to the response, you iterate based on what you learn.
All those little over-perfections you're worried about? Write them down.
Put them on your to-do list for later.
After you've shipped. After you've gotten feedback.
After you know whether this thing even matters.
This is how you avoid spending three months perfecting something no one wants.
You ship messy. You ship fast. You ship at 70%.
Then you make it better.
One Domino Changes Everything
The fifth part is the one domino decision.
Every moment of your life is a domino.
Every choice tips that domino in a particular direction.
When you line them up correctly, they compound.
They can change your life.
So you write down your goals.
Then you take three minutes to think about those goals and identify your one big domino.
What's the one action you can take today that, when repeated over time, will get you where you want to go?
Not ten actions.
Not a complete strategy.
One action.
If your goal is to build an audience, maybe your one domino is writing 200 words every morning.
If your goal is to get healthy, maybe your one domino is going to bed 30 minutes earlier.
If your goal is to switch careers, maybe your one domino is spending 15 minutes learning a new skill.
The action itself almost doesn't matter.
What matters is that it's the right domino, it's small enough to actually do, and it compounds over time.
1% better every day equals 37 times better in a year.
But only if you actually get 1% better every day.
And you can only do that if the improvement you're trying to make is small enough to execute when you're tired, distracted, busy, or unmotivated.
This applies to everything.
Business, obviously.
But also relationships.
Health. Learning. Creativity.
The difference between you and someone who sits around their entire life getting nothing done isn't talent.
It isn't discipline.
It isn't some special gift.
It's that you're constantly trying to get 1% better.
You're identifying the smallest next step and taking it.
You're building momentum through small wins.
You're facing discomfort in manageable doses.
You're shipping at 70% instead of waiting for perfect.
You're tipping the right dominoes.
That's it. That's the whole game.
Most people know what they should do.
They just can't get themselves to do it because the gap between knowing and doing feels too wide.
So you narrow the gap.
You make the next step so small that not taking it would be ridiculous.
Then you take it.
Then you do it again tomorrow.
That's how you end up at a position you're happy with.
Not through massive transformations or overnight success.
Through thousands of tiny steps, taken consistently, compounded over time.
The system works. But only if you make it small enough to actually use.
What You Can Do Right Now
Pick one thing that's been causing you stress.
Don't try to solve it.
Just identify the smallest possible action you could take toward it.
Then take that action.
Not tomorrow.
Right now.
Open the app.
Draft the first sentence.
Put on your shoes.
Make the call.
Send the text.
Do the thing that takes 30 seconds and requires zero willpower.
Then tomorrow, do it again with something else.
Or with the next smallest step on the same thing.
You're not trying to change your life today.
You're trying to tip one domino in the right direction.
Do that enough times, and your life changes anyway.