Hey everyone- welcome back to the pod. I hope that you are all safe and doing well. What a time we are truly living in right now y’all. I have been and will continue to pray for the families of the victims in the DC crash of last week and also, for the families of those who lost their lives in the Philadelphia crash this past Friday.
That crash actually happened less than 15 minutes away from my home and my aunt lives and works in that area, so seeing the footage was really surreal for me knowing I was just right down the road. And as I’m sure you’ve seen on the news or social media, residents of the area and those who work in the area were certainly impacted as well.
It’s hard to stay positive and to not be afraid and to not be distracted with all that’s been happening. The last 5 weeks have been nothing short of eventful. And it's enough to throw anyone off course, but its also so important that we don’t lose sight of what we have to attend to as life goes on as well. We have to pray and give and help, right. And along with that, we have to continue on our own journeys. And the goal is always to journey well.
And how you do anything is how you do everything, so today I want to talk about the importance of being detail-oriented and how we can lean into that behavior more in order to help us balance the different facets of our lives like we just talked about, as well as help us achieve what we desire faster, more efficiently and as they say in decency and in order.
Being detail-oriented can help us do all of those things. But there are many of us- that are not naturally detail-oriented. We have to constantly work at it. They say the devil is in the details and I find that’s true. You let enough details or little things slip through the cracks and you’ll be whirling out of control before you know it.
So how can we become more meticulous about the details? I wanna share 5 tips on how to become more detail oriented.
First, Remember, you are project managing everything. It helps to think of it in the same vein as micro goals since pm’ing is truly all about the details. But the gist is to take whatever the thing is and drill down as far as you can go. Each and every step must be accounted for. It may help to approach different facets of your life like you’re building a recipe. First, you need your list of ingredients- and then you follow instructions on how to combine those ingredients together to end up with the final product. Approaching it in this manner may help to eliminate any blind spots you may have missed had you just written down the thing you need to do without considering all of the steps and the supplies it takes to get it done.
Second is Time management- this allows you to actually execute on the details and not speak about them in hypotheticals. Planning out and attaching a timeframe to whatever it is that you are doing really helps to show you what you’re working with.
I have a friend that’s really great at this. We’ve planned a few events together, but she does not move forward on the day the event without previously plotting out a timeline. This allows you to account for all of the little details that make your event special without randomly trying to find time to fit them in. When we are random with the time, there is a high probability that we won’t get it done at all because somehow the time just evaporates.
And I liken details to a dress with pockets- how much more do you love the dress once you discover the pocket detail. It leaves you longing for the same level of detail in other dresses in your closet! Or is that just me?
Anywho, number 3 is to Remember to slow down. This goes right alongside time management right. When you set your timeline, you are pacing yourself. You build in the opportunity to take your time. And when you take your time, not only do you have an opportunity to touch the details, but also to level up on your execution of them. So slow down, so you can double-check that you followed all the steps or remembered to pick up the candles for the birthday cake- because what’s a birthday cake without candles?
My fourth tip is to consider using templates. For those things that you can automate on some level create checklists and templates to assist you with the task. Taking the time to create a template or checklist will help you hit the details when you don’t have time to think through each and every one because you’ve done some of the work in advance. So maybe it’s a recurring email that you use. Or a list of specific questions you need to ask your clients to ensure you get all of the necessary information you need from them. I work in customer success and there is specific client information that we need in order to help them move forward with onboarding. But every customer conversation flows differently, so it helps to have a document with the questions listed out so that I don’t miss anything important.
My fifth tip is simply to start small. It can be overwhelming to put a lot of different processes in place in various areas of your life all at once. But, if you work on mastering small things and create a snowball effect building on your momentum from one task to the next, you’ll be able to build yourself up. And those small wins will encourage you to continue using the systems that you’ve put in place.
Monica Ramirez Basco says and I quote:
Be detail-oriented. Look at smaller details apart from the whole task. Take on one piece at a time. You will begin to make progress and feel a sense of accomplishment.”-
Keep your head up, everyone. The world is pretty heavy right now, but you can make it just a bit brighter by focusing on making progress and enjoying a sense of accomplishment so that you can continue to journey well.
Thanks so much for listening today. If what you heard was beneficial, please share it with someone else who may find it useful. And while you’re at it, leave us a review. Share the pod. DM or email me. I read and respond to it all.
I’ve left some links in the show notes for some handy tools and templates to help you as you strive to become more detail-oriented, so check them out. And if you have some tools to share, share them by reaching out to me in all the ways that I previously mentioned and I’ll be sure to share with the village through our social platforms.
And I can’t wait to chat with you all again next week. Take care until then.
