I often feel overwhelmed by life and all the things I need to get done by the end of the day before I allow myself some time to relax. Sometimes I get so stuck in my head that I lose touch with what my body is telling me (move woman!) and worries start taking over my day. What a waste of time.
Every once in a while this oftentimes unnecessary worrying can lead to it all being a little too intense. When dancing to Tina Turner cannot help me switch off my chatty mind any longer, I know it’s time for something more substantial.
What I mean by that is getting down to the nitty-gritty of my day-to-day by pulling out all of those thoughts that are piled up as one big mess in my head. Freeing up my mental space to make room for what actually matters.
As a designer, I am trained to navigate my way through a messy design process by structuring thoughts, getting to the root of the design problem, and coming up with ideas how to solve it creatively. Over the years I have found that the design thinking methods I use are one-on-one applicable to the challenges we face in daily life. And since then, I’ve come up with ways for other people to use them.
The method I have created to get unstuck consists of 6 steps you can follow to make space for clarity and direction. It’s a less talking - more doing type of method that you can do by yourself at home.
In short, these are the 6 steps you take:
Defining your challenges & biggest breakthrough
Mapping your day-to-day: want to’s & have to’s
Distilling what changes are needed
Defining subproblems
Clustering subproblems into groups
Coming up with actions for change
This week I took a chunk out of my day to walk through these 6 steps myself and map out all of those hurdles I keep bumping into. And I videotaped all of it so I can walk you through the process.
In this video I share my main challenges, the biggest breakthrough I’m seeking, the hurdles I encounter and a whole range of ideas that will help me move closer to the contentment I crave. By sharing all of it I hope to encourage you to do the same!
I really hope you give it a go. It will be worth your time, I promise!
Iris
Comments