The Devil is Really in the Details
I’ve coached over three thousand people through their Cisco IT exams as well as countless friends and business colleages with various business and internet marketing issues.
There are some core things which I see people doing which actually prevents their success. I can often point it out to them but they seem so compelled to carry on regardless that they struggle to drop this one bad habit.
They delay results and lose a big pile of money in the process.Here are a few examples:
- A student spends days looking at stuff which is not in the exam syllabus
- A business owner spends weeks learning web programming while he loses money
- A therapist loses an entire days work trying to change the colour of her e-mail template
You see, the devil really is in the details.
It is nice to be able to find new stuff out but a person could weigh up the benefits against the time invested here. If cash flow is good and we have the free time then fire away. If time is an issue and we really need to generate more cash flow then for goodness sake, focus on what is going to get you to where you want to be first.
When that is taken care of, do what feels fun and learn stuff for the sake of it. There is a massive difference between being effective and being efficient. Being efficient is sorting through your e-mail, clearing out spam and discovering new ways to change what you are already doing. Being effective is making five sales calls or knocking out two hours of quality study for your upcoming exam.
Paul Browning
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16 Comments
HI Paul,
How true this is? I can relate to this with my studies and I am sure lots and lots of people who read this article would be able to say the same thing.
Great article.
Kev
Agree with you ! Details are often distractions. Let them go and gain efficiency 🙂
You can be both effective and efficient, all you need is focus and a pertinent plan…
“A student spends days looking at stuff which is not in the exam syllabus” Isn’t it a little bit too utilitarian to learn just for exams?
Detail is not devil but indecisiveness is. Dwelling on ” to be or not to be” kills efficiency, also effectiveness.
I’m going to play devils advocate here, but I prefer knowing the subject well. It’s one thing going into a Cisco exam with an idea of how to pass it, but doesn’t really help if you go into a business and have to explain either to a colleague from a technical perspective, or to senior management why things behave the way they do without actually knowing much … one thing talking the talk, it’s another walking the walk.
Cheers,
Chris P
?A student spends days looking at stuff which is not in the exam syllabus?
Too true, I am guilty of this and get side tracked easily by looking at stuff that distracts me from achieving my goal.
what this means is that you spend says on things that wont help you with a deadline hanging over your head for an exam, Im sure this article dose not mean dont learn anything else. The exam only takes 90 minutes or so to do but studying for it takes allot longer and if you look at things too much out of the syllabus you will inevitable bite off more then you can chew. Theres plenty of time to look at these things in non focused study time and after the exam
One chunk at a time or Kizen I think they call it in Japan
Great article
B”H
Paul, you got a point. At the same time, in regard to my cisco study, specifically: if I had seen those host IP’s I’d have passed 2 moths ago wiu a great score. Then all of a sudden people would have no issue with my approach. When you pass, people respect whatever method works for you. When you do not, they say your method is flawed even for you. Go figure.
Anyway, keep up your good work. I like your blogs too 🙂
Sincerely,
Dovid
I’m a victim of that ..lol – i still need to sit for my CCNA :-/
This is so true, specially for an exam like the CCNA, which gives you “information overload” because of the broad subject. The CCNA Simplified book does help to focus on just the parts that are important, but many people, including me, have a hard time learning and getting it to stick if we can’t figure out WHY things are the way they are and can’t just accept an “that’s just the way it is”, and “don’t worry about it, just learn it and go on”.
I could almost go as far as saying … learning and not really understanding is almost borderline braindumping…
Great Article! THIS SO TRUE! When you are by yourself within your company, you try to do everything, just to save money. But, in that way you are losing track and focus on sales which makes you the cash flows. We need to have a goal to make some amount of sales at the month, manage our time better and hire the people to do the job that needs to be done. Thank you paul for the reminder! Details can get your way very easy and sometimes we don’t even notice.
For ex: I have been trying for a year to take my CCNA test, I know what shame, but, I’m planning to take it at the end of this year. No more details!
Take care everybody, focusssssss!
My former boss was completely plagued by details. She could not complete anything because she would get so wrapped up in all these little things. She was a wonderful, smart, competent boss, but she would miss so many opportunities to do things because there was always some sort of delay due to very small details.
I really learned a lot about what not to do from her. I hope that she can learn these things, too.
People who focus on the details too much really are missing the big picture. You can’t spend a whole day fiddling with the email template (and I know people who do exactly this) because you completely lose sight of why you need to write the email in the first place.
Figure out what you are trying to do, get it done, and iron out the details later.
Thanks for this post.
I am studying at the moment, and I do tend to spend much more time on the trivial things than I really should. I agree that you should try to figure out what is the most meaningful information and focus there.
I find my worst days are when I get distracted by too many emails. I tend to start putting them into folders and then half the morning is gone and I’ve wasted a third of my day!
I think you are 100% correct Paul. When I began my college career I was guilty of studying far too much for an exam. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than spending a huge amount of time studying for something that was never on the exam. I couldn’t tell you how bad I wanted to kick myself when I did this. I think the moral of the story is to keep your eye on the ball and limit your distractions.