How to Zoom In and Zoom Out on a Decision
Why changing our focus matters
What we point our attention at is where we focus. Generally, this is a good thing. You cannot make progress in any endeavour without focus.
But can we overly focus? The notion of a focus that is too narrow has been termed tunneling. Imagine you are in a tunnel. You can see the end of the tunnel quite clearly. But everything else has been left out. You have no idea what is going on outside the tunnel. That’s tunneling.
As economists Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir note in their book Scarcity, “tunneling changes the way we choose.” We assume we only have the options in front of us. We fail to look outside our tunnel. How do we get out of the tunnel?
“To photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude.” -Susan Sontag, photographer
Tunneling is equivalent to being too “zoomed in”, like seeing the pixels of an image instead of the whole form. Try these approaches to zoom out:
- Create more options Don’t think about their feasibility, just throw them out there
- Research similar situations Seeing how others solved a similar problem can inspire you
- Shift your focus Meditate, go for a run, do something to take your mind off the problem
On the other hand, if you see the big picture but are failing to make progress, you may have the opposite problem. If you are too zoomed out, you cannot see the details necessary to advance. Consider zooming in by doing the following:
- Descend into the particular Find your exact sticking point, and break it down into its component parts
- Limit your choices There’s no magic number, but if you have more than 7, that’s likely too many
- Give yourself a deadline
If you find yourself circling around a problem but not progressing, consider your focus. Zooming in and out of a problem habitually will make you a better problem solver over time.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter for more reflections: @JayVillas2020.