Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - What Type of Critical Thinker are You? | Clutterbug Podcast # 79

Episode Date: October 20, 2019

I find the brain so fascinating. I especially find the concept of macro versus micro thinking and how it affects so many aspects of your life very interesting. I'm curious, what type of critical thinker are you?    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about one of my favorite subjects to talk about, and that is how the brain works. Talking about micro versus macro thinking, the two different types of critical thinking, and how that impacts so many different areas of your life. So welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about one of my favorite topics. I just love, I find the brain so fascinating. I'm going to be honest with you. it's truth chimed here. I have no idea how the brain works. I have no scientific background whatsoever, but I find the brain fascinating. And I certainly find the fact that there are two types of critical thinkers fascinating. There are micro thinkers and there are macro thinkers. Or at least that's my theory and I'm going to just dig deep into why I believe this and really ask you to think about what type of

critical thinker you are. Are you a micro or a macro thinker? And the idea behind this really came from my journey of organization, my journey from going to, from a really, really messy person to a clean and organized person. And that, the catalyst of that was discovering that I don't organize in a traditional way. Traditional organization is really detailed. It's really meticulous. It's really micro in thought. it's taking a lot of your stuff, a big pile and making lots of smaller categories. It's about planning. It's about just microcritical thinking. And I struggle with that. I'm a macro thinker. I'm a big picture thinker. And therefore, I'm a big picture organizer. So when I first started my journey of organization and I discovered that I could have bigger categories that I didn't have

to take the time to sort things, especially paper and other small things into filing cabinets or small categories. I could go big, big macro bins without lids where I can toss things away. It really complimented the way my brain worked, so it was effortless to maintain my home, to put things away when I was done with them. I could just toss it back where it went without giving it a second thought. And lately, I'm really starting to change my direction. I'm certainly still a huge fan of organization, but I'm starting to really look into mindfulness and I'm joining a lot of entrepreneur groups with fellow women entrepreneurs, really successful, amazing women. And I'm noticing a trend with them when it comes to their critical thinking

and their stumbling blocks and my stumbling blocks. And just it's really fascinating. So I wanted to talk about that today. And the big thing that I'm really seeing, is there are two distinct critical thinking and people who fall into two groups of critical thinking. There are micro thinkers. And a micro thinker is a really natural, detailed person. They love categories. They love planning. They're generally pretty logical.

They're like the nerds of the world. Not really, but they definitely are the type of people who love to research and just break things down into smaller steps naturally. And then there are the macro thinkers, the big picture thinkers. They really struggle with the small details. Some people might call them ADHD. Not necessarily always, but they're definitely the people who focus on the end goal and have trouble going backwards to see the steps that it takes to achieve that. They're the dreamers. Whereas the other people, the micro thinkers are the ones that come up with the plan to achieve that dream. And neither one is better. And definitely if you are a natural macro thinker, a natural big picture dreamer, you can

master micro thinking and you can learn that and have both. And just like if you are a naturally micro detailed person and that is your critical thinking superpower, you can absolutely learn how to be a dreamer and a big picture thinker. But knowing which of these two categories that you fall into naturally can really help you identify the area that you need to work on so you can be more balanced. And the reason we want to be more balanced is because that's how we can achieve success. So we know the strengths of both. The strength of being a microcritical thinker is that you're excellent at really coming up with lots of details. that you think about the small things, you're a tad bit of a perfectionist, you really pay attention

to detail, you're a great planner naturally, you really research things, you cross all the T's and dot all the eyes, and this is an amazing superpower. And the benefit of being a macro think or a big picture think or a dreamer is that you think outside the box, you can really dream so big and see things not for their little details but what they could be and that's an amazing superpower to have but here is where the issues lie and i'm going to start with the macro thinker it's the exact same issues that we have when it comes to organizing our home it's that we don't stop and think about the details we don't stop and plan properly we think always at the end goal. That is our full focus what we're going to achieve. And it's really, really hard for

macrocritical thinkers to take that big goal and to break it down into smaller steps. It's really hard to create that path, that plan to actually achieve that big amazing goal, which is why a lot of dreamers, big picture thinkers, they never actually achieve those big amazing dreams. and I am that person and my sister is that person. So I'm going to use her as an example. So my sister wants to open, if you asked her what her dream is, she has a big one. She would say that it is to open up a wellness center and franchise that all around North America. She wants to have this huge, amazing wellness center.

She wants to be the CEO. When you ask her what her dream is, she says to make millions of dollars. a year franchising her wellness center. But here's the thing. This has been her dream for 20 years. And she has no idea how to achieve that. And for her, she's like, well, I would need millions of dollars to start a wellness center. But the truth is, she can break that down. Everything starts at the beginning. Every big dream needs a beginning. So for her, that would be breaking that down into, well, she would have to start as a wellness coach. And then eventually she could bring on other wellness coaches. And then she could hire maybe a naturopath to be part of her wellness

center and a chiropractor and an aromatherapist. But it starts with her as the core. Eventually, they could get enough income to buy a building. And then when it's really popular, then you can trademark it and start franchising, licensing your business. But it starts with her. her becoming a wellness coach, which she really wants to do. But how do you do that? Even that is a huge goal. You have to break that down into how do you get clients? Even that is a huge goal. You have to break that down into, okay, I'm going to need a website and I'm going to have to register that with Google My Business. And even that has to be broken down. Well, how do you start a website? And everything gets broken down into these little tiny steps. And then that is how to

we achieve success. We master one step and we move on to the next. But for macro thinkers, this is really, really difficult to break it down into the tiny things, to know where to start. And on the other side of that, you have micro thinkers who are amazing at breaking things down and planning and looking at all of those little details to a fault. A micro thinker gets so stuck on those details that they could be in just this loop of doing the same thing over and over again until they can get it perfect. And my father-in-law is a really great example of a micro-thinker. His dream was to have a YouTube channel. He wanted to educate people on finance and how to build clients because he's really great at that. And so for him, he was like, well, the first step is I have to

learn how to use a camera. He knew. He knew right off the bat. I mean, he had a dream, but it wasn't quite as big as my sister, the macro thinker. His was like, I want to be a YouTuber. And so he was like, I need to use a camera. He spent three years trying to teach himself to use a camera, researching, researching, which camera's the best, then buying one and then just watching everything he could learn so he could master how to use a camera. Before he could move on to the second step, which is learn how to edit a video. I mean, he never even got to the second step, and he was so overwhelmed with the idea of that. And so that's what happens with micro thinkers.

Everything becomes so overcomplicated, over-detailed, and over-planned, over-researched, that they can never actually move forward. And so when you understand which critical thinking sort of category that you fall into, and I mean, I'm talking about, I chose two people that are definitely extremes in their critical thinking, an extreme macro thinker and an extreme micro thinker, but maybe you can relate a little bit to one of those. And so what we have to do is teach ourselves the critical thinking of the other side. So if you're a micro thinker, you really need to find. find out and teach yourself how to macro think more. My father-in-law should have said, okay, I have to learn how to turn on a camera and push record. I should give myself a week to do this.

And then I move on to editing. And I embrace good enough. And I move on to good enough editing. And then I move on to setting up a YouTube channel, good enough. I'm going to give myself a week goal for this or two weeks goal for this. And when I reach that end, whether I'm mastered or not, I'm moving on. to the next goal. I'm focusing on the bigger picture. And for a macro critical thinker, they have to do the opposite. They have to break down that goal into really small things and realize,

like, what is the absolute first step that I need to take? And it's going to be tiny. It's going to feel so insignificant to a macro thinker, but it's still critical to having success. And so a micro thinker sort of has to break up the goal, I guess, or build up their goals. And a macro thinker has to break down their goals. And I find this so fascinating because it's exactly the same thing in so many areas of your life outside of building a business or everything from your finances. This really plays a role to organizing your home. It really does. micro organizers struggle so much with the fact that they make a lot of piles and they have a lot of details, but they don't know where to put anything because they're not seeing their home as the final goal.

They can't visualize what the space is going to look like when it's done or where everything's going to go when it's done. So it's really hard for them. They know the crux of how to organize. They're amazing at it. They've made lots of little piles, but they don't know where to put those piles or where the best place is. and they get really hung up on the small details, that micro-thinking. Whereas a macro-thinker, they know exactly how they want their home to look. They're like, da-da-da-da-da.

They, you know, they have this grand plan for their organization, and it's huge. It's way bigger than, you know, it's probably achievable. Let's be honest, they're big dreamers. But they have zero idea of how to break that big plan down into actual steps. and both of these critical thinking sides of this huge expansely different way of thinking. Both of these sides are teachable. You can absolutely, if you are a macro big picture thinker, learn how to plan, learn how to break a goal down into smaller actionable steps.

And if you're a micro thinker, you can 100% learn to look more at the big picture and limit your amount of time that you're micro-analyzing things. And a great way to do this is to reach out to somebody who has the opposite thinking that you do. Maybe it's a friend, family member, a spouse, just asking for input is such an amazing way to start your journey. Of course, there's lots of books on this and there's lots of different resources that you can use. But I just wanted you to think about it. That's what this podcast is about today. It's just getting, you know, that little spark in your mind going so you can think about what type of critical thinker you are and how that is impacting your life in both a positive and a negative

way. Have you mastered the other side of that coin? Have you mastered the other side or are you still struggling? And sometimes just having that self-awareness that this is even a really a thing is the first step of really helping overcome any issues that you are having or any weaknesses that you are having. And so you can achieve the success. So you can really plan or not plan to achieve what you want and those goals that you want. So it's a quick little podcast today. I just find this really interesting. I was driving home and I was having a conversation with myself about this. I might be crazy. But I thought instead of talking to myself, maybe I would talk to you guys about it. Let me know what you think in the comments below if you are a micro or a macro thinker and I'll see you guys next time.