Def.: a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, esp. by a computer: a basic algorithm for division.
“Or, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Starting from an initial state and initial input (perhaps empty), the instructions describe a computation that, when executed, proceeds through a finite number of well-defined successive states, eventually producing ‘output’ and terminating at a final ending state.”
Today, most people think of algorithms as exclusively being in the context of computers and computer science. Yet, algorithms pervade much of our current thinking and problem solving. For example, the phrase “smallest manageable tasks” belongs to this kind of activity/thinking. And, the advice to break complex and overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one, fits too.