When you can do the simple things better you help ensure that the bases of what you're doing are being covered. It's making sure you're doing the fundamental things well that leads to great results. Sometimes consistently doing the simple things can be boring that lead to mental shortcuts that will cause you to come up short of what you're trying to achieve as there is a tendency to miss obvious things that lead to simple errors. This is especially true when you have done something for a long time or advance into something more and you think it becomes automatic. But when that thinking comes about it can cause you to lose focus on the simple things that need to get done.
What the simple things include are the routine things in whatever it is you do. This could be tying your shoes to prevent stepping on them and tripping over that might cause a significant injury. Or typing in the wrong address in your GPS that causes you to be late for a big event that you had to attend. Or wiring somebody $10,000 when you meant for it to only be $1,000. These simple things can be the difference for things to go smoothly or for things to get totally out of whack.
Simplify makes things manageable
Many times, the big things that we intend to pursue comes down to simplifying certain aspects of it so it becomes more digestible. If it is being seen as one big task it can feel overwhelming and make you more inclined not to want to pursue it. But once you can see it in simple terms it becomes a lot more manageable to take action towards it.
Say you want to read one book a month and the average book is about 300 pages long, initially it can feel that that's quite a bit but if you break it down on a daily basis, reading 10 pages equates to one book a month. Thinking in terms of what needs to get done daily to reach that goal that you set for yourself becomes a lot more doable mentally that does not feel like such a heavy weight. And reading these 10 pages daily doesn't have to be all done at one time, maybe you read 5 pages in the morning in 5 pages in the evening.
This gives you the ability to focus more of your time to do things soundly as the breaks gives you the chance to properly process. Being able to do things more frequently in smaller increments strengthens and refines you that lead to excellent consistency whereas doing things for long periods of time, infrequently will make it much harder to sustain.
Simplifying helps you be effective
When you can simplify things, it helps to organize what action you will take. The more choices you have, the more time is spent thinking over which one is best. With so much information that you're trying to process it slows down your effectiveness. While this can be good at times, it can also impede you from taking action.
Say you're at a store and you're looking for a blue shirt to buy and there are over thirty types of blue to choose from. You are more likely to go through each one and examine which one you really like but eventually you'll get to the point where you become fatigued by looking at all the different options that towards the end you'll probably select the one that is most convenient for you. But if you can simplify the type of blue you're looking for into a shade type, then you eliminate all the other ones and maybe you narrow it down to three types of shirts. This is going to help save you time and use more of your energy to the determine which one you like the most. With more time, you are more refreshed that gives you a calm state of mind.
As you can narrow things down you can effectively use more of your time to focus on what you simplified. We all have about 35,000 decisions that we make on a daily basis and the less time spent on analyzing each one, the more effective we can be on the things that we choose to do. This is going to help you do the simple things better because with more time you allow yourself to refine the basic things that will produce great results.
This applies to every facet of your life, whether it's the relationships you have, your health, the way you make a living, the way you handle your struggles. So, if you do the simple things like communicate often in your relationships the bond becomes stronger, exercising and eating well balanced meals your health will improve, setting a priority list for the week your work efficiency gets better, or taking a walk to clear your head with the things you are struggling with gives you time to process and handle it well.
Doing all these simple things well will have a great impact on the quality of your experiences because they add up to massive results overtime. Being able to consistently do the simple things better helps you refocus on the process of doing things as opposed to just focused on the results. When your attention is on the process you remember what it takes to produce the results that you want, simply focusing on the results alone is not going to produce them.
Foundation to building something bigger
Everything starts off with the routine, fundamental, sound things that are the foundation to bigger things. Just like the foundation to a house, it is simple but it must be done well so that all of the other parts of the house can be put together. Without the proper foundation, the house will have a hard time properly being built and can lead to it collapsing. Consistently doing the simple things better, the more you can build on it to sustain what you are doing. It gives you the ability to ascend into much more, but without it, the fall you experience will be greater and much more painful.
In keeping that perspective at the forefront it's going to continuously bring clarity and a higher degree of leveled headedness that helps you navigate the vast forest you are in. It's going to give you the skill to grasp the complexities so you know exactly what to pay attention to make things work. Many times, it is not the most exciting or flashy things that are sustainable. If you look at the company Coca-Cola, it is very simple where they sell beverages and they execute on every level which includes, product quality, delivery, business, PR and because they have done the simple well, they have been thriving for 137 years.
Focus on one thing at a time
One of the ways to do the simple things better is to focus on one thing at a time. Begin by eliminating distractions so you can remain committed to that one thing. With all the daily distractions all around us our mind can jump from one thing to another and it can take in average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back on task when we're interrupted by something else. In the workplace there is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours’ worth of distractions. And this obviously disrupts that deep flow state that allows you to effectively perform at a high level.
While it can be tempting to try to multitask because it might seem like you are doing several things at one time you're actually not because you go back and forth from reading an article, to having a conversation with somebody, to eating all at the same time. We all have a finite amount of energy so when it's split up into several different things it's not going to be split up evenly. So if you're trying to do three different things at one time not one singular thing is going to get 100% of your time and energy.
This can cause you to take more shortcuts that's going to lead to errors, you're going to want to summarize things of potential details that are pivotal to what you're doing. And in the end it's just going to make you more ineffective operating this way as you're going to have to go back and fix those errors and actually take each task one at a time anyways. To overcome this even if you have three things that need to get done it'd be a great idea to focus on one so you can completely devote all your time to doing it well and then you can move on to the next one. This is going to help you give more time to catch potential errors and improve the overall quality.
Develop a routine to effectively set the tone
We all have a routine that helps get our day started and this sets the tone for how we operate the day. Evaluate what is your routine and see if it is serving you. Is it helping you set in motion the action you need to take. If you are looking for ways to start off your day by doing simple better, try doing some sort of exercise to get your body moving as this gets your mind to fire off on all the things that you want to get done. As you get into the rhythm of moving your body consistently you get a boost of energy, it improves your cognitive ability, it reduces stress you are going through, and it increases your creativity along with so many other benefits.
Another way to get the day started is just to be alone, away from the TV, phone, radio, people, and this helps you organize your thoughts and figure out how you want to go about your day. Taking the time to plan out or ponder what you want to accomplish allows you to see beyond the present and helps you develop visualization so you know where you are going. Without visualizing you become stuck in what you know. Having a routine to start off your day can make all the difference in what you actually get done. It makes you take initiative that shapes your future according to what you want. Half of the battle is figuring out what to do while the other half is figuring it out how to do it.
Be purposeful
In whatever you do, move with a purpose. This creates a sense of urgency that makes you follow suit. It does not mean to rush to get things done, but once you identify what you plan to do, you move to it with a drive. Some ways to move with a purpose is to walk at a faster pace in whatever you do as it will make everything about diving into it and be in offensive mode as opposed to waiting for things to play out.
Even the way your feet move dictates the pace that you set for yourself. Dragging your feet is literally a drag on what you are doing. It gives you the feeling that what you are doing or about to do is uninteresting and unimportant and so you will just muddle your way through it. When this happens, there is a tendency to muddle through your everyday activities even when it is exciting. But the more you pick up your feet, the more it literally makes you pick the pace in the things you do. So how well you go at the uninteresting and unimportant things, the better you will be at those things that are exciting and important.
Final thoughts
Look at the simple things as the starting point and honestly ask yourself if they are slipping. Can you do them better? Look to what is suffering in your life and get back to the basics. While it can hurt the ego to admit that you have fallen short because of your effort, being able to recognize it is wake up call to something bigger if it is not corrected. In the end, do the simple things better will improve what you are doing and experiencing. And this is translatable to everything in your life.
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