To me this is just a matter of scope for the abstraction you named "problem", because ultimately we can only solve one problem at a time, and everything we achi

To me this is just a matter of scope for the abstraction you named "problem", because ultimately we can only solve one problem at a time, and everything we achieve is achieved incrementally. Whether you explicitly break up your "problem" into smaller problems by organizing your workflow that way, or implicitly break it up by simply biting off bits as you work seems to be the difference. The former being more planned, with the latter requiring greater mental tracking and ad lib task management. The greatest disadvantage regardless of how you work is task switching. If you're doing push-ups and sit-ups, it's easier to do 50 each x2 than 1 set of 2 each x 50. So if you include switching tasks as a task, you're doing 3 exercises, not 2, and your work becomes 150 instead of 100.