Everything Is a Problem, Until You Solve It

 I've been creating some draft posts because I'm not super sure on what to write about. It's been a while that I wrote something interesting. Now I am just trying to write whatever comes to my mind. I spoke to an intern recently and she was like I think I know you and I said, everyone knows me, and she started laughing. It's truly funny. However, what's more important is that we try and create something interesting. So let's go back to the topic of problem solving. Sometimes you got to go the structured way and sometimes the unstructured way. Sometimes the way you go is with planning and sometimes without any planning. I have been working quite hard these days so concentrating really well. But what's more important is that we talk about problem solving. Root causing, so many techniques that we can employ. So, what is problem solving? Can it be applied to work only? Can it be applied to life in general? Where do we see the advantages of problem solving? How do we get better at problem solving? When will we get better with problem solving... We need a curious mind there. So never mind, what are we doing here?

What is problem solving? To me the way I look at problem solving is anything in life can be a problem to be solved. For an example, problem solving can be doing the dishes at home in a better way, it can be organising groceries and planning such that you always have groceries at home, it can truly be anything. I'm genuinely wondering that problem solving can be such an exciting thing to be in. Problem solving can be selecting the outfit for going where you want to. Problem solving can be going after that hard math problem. Problem solving can be managing your time effectively so that you have time for life. Problem solving can be going bold in everything. Problem solving can be crafting a new business plan. Problem solving can be resolving certain tickets. Problem solving can be anything. Literally anything. Problem solving can also be optimising your resources to bring in the most value. My point here is problem solving can be anything. Problem solving can be how to care less in the world. Problem solving can be finding joy during a rough week. Problem solving can be to cook anything with the random ingredients you have in your kitchen. That's an interesting challenge. Problem solving can be learning to stay calm even when others are not. Problem solving can be maximising runs in a given number of balls. Say, I give you 6 balls in cricket and then problem solving can be about getting 12 runs out of the 6 balls. Or maximising as many runs as possible. All of these are truly interesting problems to solve. So what I want to say here is that problem solving can be literally anything. Anything. 

Why do we need great problem solvers? First of all, everything that we see is a problem solved. For example, the creating of airplanes by Wright brothers was a problem solved to travel in less time. Someone asked on how to decrease the travel time and here we are we solved a problem. When making a calculator, someone asked why not have a machine that can do all the math for us? We solved that problem as well. Now we are in an age where technology is helping us solve any random problem in the world. It can be a calculator, it can be a teacher, it can be a scientist everything in one thing which we called Artificial Intelligence. Although today it's difficult to create an AI robot that will do manual things that humans do. But then eventually there will be a day where we will have AI do everything that humans do. That might be the end of mankind as well. However, we won't reach that day anytime soon in my opinion. The point of all the blabbering here is that we need great problem solvers to improve the world. We want the world to improve not just in one sense but in every sense. We want to see the world improve. We got to solve more and more problems. We got to see the power within us. We got to sense that the world belongs to people who solve problems. We got to live our lives with utmost freedom.

How do we practically become good problem solvers. I always say that one must spend most of their time in understanding the problem. Not just in solving it. Once you understand the problem the solution comes on its own. We can connect the dots. We can write down the things that we know about. We can play around a little more with the tools. We can have timers. We can create more and more and more. I feel like the more we try doing something. The better we become at it. We can play around and experiment with a lot of things. Sometimes even things like breaking the problem into smaller sub problems can help. Try and trying and experimenting can help. Some genuinely good problem solving tips are as follows: 

One is a very sequential way of trying to a practical problem: 

Problem: Let's have an example of a problem, "I don't wake up very early in the morning and because of that I feel rushed. "

1. Clarify the problem: Over here we need to get specific, what exactly is happening? I'm waking up late at 8:30 and have to go to work at 9:00. So that's why I feel rushed and skip breakfast at times.

2. Break down the problem: Think of all the pieces over here. 

• Sleeping late
• Watching videos on phone
• Trying to unwind
• No specific night time routine

3. Target setting: What will success look like? Waking up at 7:00 am every morning. Having a great morning routine with breakfast and bath and feel more relaxed and in control. 

4. Root cause analysis: 

• Why am I waking up late? Because I sleep late
• Why do I sleep late? Because I am scrolling through reels and shorts at night. 
• Why do I scroll through reels and shorts? Because that's just for time pass and nothing planned better to do. 
• Why do I not have anything planned ? There's no night time routine.

5. Develop countermeasures: 

• Make a no screen time after 10:00pm
• Read a physical book before going to bed. 
• Move alarm away from the bed
• Prep clothes/lunch a night before

6. See countermeasures through:  This is where you take action. 

• Try no screen after 10:00pm for 7 days straight
• Use a bedside lamp and keep a book ready
• Set a wind-down alarm at 9:45pm to remind you. 
• Move phone to another room.

7. Monitor both results and process: Once you have implemented your routine, track your progress. Track how you felt each day and if there's something that you feel like changing. Change it. 

8. Standardize Successful Process: Now standardise the process and keep going. You will have solved the problem. 

Although this is only for a particular problem that I mentioned but you can use it anywhere. Even in technical things you can use it. What I want to say is that problem solving like any other skill grows through practice, so the more you practice the better. You will feel great as and when you practice. 

Exercise: Pick a problem in your life and now make sure you apply the above steps and see what happens to your life. I'm sure it will get better. But how better, we want to know.