Looking at the Details

There is an area of my life that continues to cause me frustration. I have always thought of myself as a big picture guy, an idea man operating on the large scale. My philosophy has always been get the ball rolling and the details will take care of themselves. This works out sometimes. But if I want to make my life the way I want it to be I need to learn to look after the details as well.

With that in mind how do I teach myself to be detail oriented? I plan on doing it the way that has worked for me in the past, by focusing on one little block at a time. The plan is to start by working on the details associated with one or two areas of my life, creating the habit of paying attention to details in these areas. Once I feel comfortably attuned to details in these areas I will expand my focus to other parts of my life.

Like other changes in my life, as I gain confidence in being detail oriented I will start to be detail oriented. It will become part of who I am. Part of how I define myself.

The two areas I am focusing on at first will be my writing and scheduling my time. Over the weekend I began filling the calendar in my phone, blocking out time to do work during the day with reminders and prompts for certain tasks in certain time blocks. I have also added the mundane details of (i.e.: life, brush teeth, work out, eat lunch) details to my schedule to try to fit the things I mean to do in. My plan is for this detailed scheduling to be an ongoing reminder to be focused on details. Also I expect it to help create habits that are healthy for me, such as working out.

For me focusing on the details of writing means more rereading of what I write, more self editing, and paying more attention to grammar and style guides.

Does all this detail work excite me? Not really. Does it need to be done? Yes