Richard Carlson is spot-on when he wrote Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life. One of the enemies of breakthrough thinking is getting caught up in the details too early in the project.
Attention to detail is good, but for later in the evaluation and execution stages of a project. In the ideation and design stages of a project, obsessing over details is a distraction. Bringing up tiny but controversial/polarising details is actually a tactic used by some people to derail collaboration efforts.
Another set of small things you can be caught up in is the noise in your head. Many of us seem to be born worriers. If only we can fix problems and prevent catastrophes by worrying alone!
By practising self awareness, we can over time learn to mitigate this need to worry; to sweat the small stuff.
- Set up a few check-points in your day – say just before lunch, or before leaving the office – to check in with what’s in your head.
- How are you feeling?
- What are the top five things you are thinking about?
- How many of these are actually small stuff?
- Are you thinking about these constructively or just worrying about them?
Stephen Mills has tip here: ttp://www.ratracetrap.com/the-rat-race-trap/the-best-ways-to-not-sweat-the-small-stuff-part-i.html
