It's all in how you approach it
I was painting a bedroom over the last week. Unfortunately, it was well populated with furniture, a wall-mounted TV that needed lowering, clutter, the usual stuff. Given the time I had available, I didn’t think I’d be able to finish the whole bedroom before having to travel again.
I decided to tackle the wall with the wall-mounted TV first, so I moved the furniture to make enough room, taped just that wall (but not the ceiling since I was planning on painting it) and then proceeded to apply two coats of primer and two coats of the real paint. I subsequently moved around to an alcove and another wall and the part of the ceiling I could reach without having to rent scaffolding.
I managed to get two walls done and everything moved back into place before I left for another business trip. My wife is happy because the bedroom looks better. I did no damage and made noticeable progress. I still have some Painting to do (the capital P is to indicate it will be a Pain). I eventually have to move the bed, rent scaffolding, and so on. That’s probably more in the future than I’d prefer, but I’ll do it when I know I have the time and space to do it.
Contrast this to when we bough the house back in March. I entered an empty house. I managed to get two bedrooms painted (ceilings included) and the “grand” room with 14’ vaulted ceilings. I only nearly killed myself once – don’t lean a ladder against a wall but put the legs on plastic – and it was much easier to move around. I had a clean slate.
Sometimes you’ve got to get done what you can get done to make some progress. When I was younger, my desire to finish the entire bedroom might have stopped me from making any progress. Sure, the bedroom is now half old paint and half new paint, but according to my wife it looks better – and she’s the product owner! I can probably do one more wall without having to do major lifting and when I’m finally ready to rent the scaffolding, I won’t have as much to do. I can break down the bed, rent the scaffolding and then in one day I might be able to finish the remainder of the work. (Well probably 2 days because I’ll end up wanting to apply 2 coats to the ceiling and I’ll need to wait 8 hours).
Painting is just like software development.