Object Breakdown Thinking

Key Concept No. 2

Object breakdown thinking

In the next few frames, I am going to describe the visual logic system that underpins the entire APT planning method. From this point on, I will refer to this logic as 'The Object Law'.

The following four bullet points describe the essence of this logic:

• If you were to cut an apple half, you would have two halves.

• If you were to cut each of these pieces in half, you would have four quarters.

• If you were to now eat one of these quarters, you would no longer have a complete apple.

• If you were to replace the missing quarter with a quarter of an orange, you still would not have a complete apple.

In other words, if you wish to achieve a great result, you need to identify all the 'things' that make up the total result.

 It's about that simple. As you read through this topic and the balance of this module, I am simply expressing the above logic in a format that has practical application.

As I mentioned before, I believe that good planning is simply clear organised thinking. 

To achieve this, you need to be able to structure your thinking.

To explain the logic of achieving this, I am going to use an old fashion, low technology audio cassette (instead of the apple) to illustrate my explanation.

The Top Box

In Figure A, I have pictured a blank (unrecorded) audio cassette tape. Imagine that you may have just purchased this item from a local store.

Using the simple box representation system, we could represent this as shown in Figure B.

I would now like you to imagine that you have opened up the plastic storage box (Figure A) and removed the blank Audio Cassette and the Contents Label.

You now have three `objects' in front of you as shown in Figure B:

the Cassette Tape, 

the Contents Label and 

the Storage Box.

The diagram or Breakdown Chart ( Figure C), represents this disassembly process.