Are You a Detail-Oriented or Big Picture Person?

“I’m a detail-oriented person, you know, and it’s like….like some people don’t even KNOW THE DETAILS EXIST!”

That’s me on the phone with my sister last week, trying to explain my exasperation with people who like to make sweeping and general proclamations but are allergic to sitting down and discussing how we’re going to make their grand vision a reality. My sister laughed in commiseration; we were raised by the same parents — chronic i-dotters and t-crossers. We don’t know any other way to be.

And yet…

Somehow those big picture people make it through life all right. Sure, there are the ones whose electricity gets shut off not for lack of funds but because the bill got lost in a pile of other unpaid stuff, but a lot of people I know who eschew my precious details are quite successful and happy. (More on detail-oriented versus big picture thinking)

This confounds me, but I have two working hypotheses:

  1. Someone else is taking care of their details for them.

  2. The detail are (gasp!) not really as important as I imagine.

I have no research to prove it, but I suspect both things are true. I’ve been the details person in many a relationship, both business and personal, so I know that dynamic exists. I also know their grand plans only come to fruition BECAUSE I hammer out the details and keep hammering, even when I’ve smashed my thumb. The second one, I both fear and hope is true. Because I’ve noticed something else (We details people tend to notice things.):

Big picture people seem happier than I feel a lot of the time.

I don’t just focus on the details, I obsess over them, I stress about them, I dissect them until they crumble to bits under my scrutiny. And lately, I’ve begun to fantasize about being the big idea person and having someone like me take care of all those smaller bits. I like the details but I also hate them. They are necessary but perhaps not as much so as I think. Perhaps if I could loosen my grip on those small items just a little, I would feel more relaxed.

I can’t see the forest for all these fascinating trees.

On the one hand, the links always work in these posts because I check them obsessively. On the other, I sometimes, maddeningly, accidentally buy decaf coffee because I’m over-focused on getting the right roast. I lose sight of the main purpose (caffeination) for the minutia of flavor variation. (More on the pros on cons of detail-oriented focus)

Balance

I can tell what I need here is balance — attention to detail without becoming overly focused, a view of the big picture without completely losing sight of the brush strokes composing it. The struggle is how to get there. We, as humans, seem wired to react to our problems with overcorrections, wildly swinging the other direction when we perceive we’ve drifted too close to an edge. Where is the middle ground?

What about you? Are you a details person or a big picture person? How do you cope with whatever part of that equation irks you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or via the message button at the bottom.

Sincerely,

April

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Fundamental of the Week #25: PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS 

Be rigorous about accuracy and precision. Double-check your work.


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