How to use micro adjustments to generate big leaps
Over the last few years, I have personally got deep into the topic of self-reflection. Understanding why I operate in the way I do, what causes success (and failures) in my life and how to replicate or diminish for the future.
I am far from mastering self-reflection but with each passing week, I have managed to build upon momentum to ensure that I at least end each week in the right mental state ready to tackle the week ahead.
So why am I telling you this?
I utilise effective planning, self-reflection, and micro-adjustments to generate leaps in my career and home life. In the Peritus blog I write a lot about planning but reflection and micro adjustments not so much, therefore I wanted to share my approach in the hopes that it can impart some ideas into your own practice to help make your next big leap be it in securing that job, promotion or relationship.
Daily Reflection
At the end of each workday, I spend 5–10 minutes reflecting.
I like to take stock of how I performed based on my plan, having this time to myself before I finish for the day allows me to wrap up my working day and hopefully minimise it bleeding into my evening, not only this, but it also allows me to understand at that moment the wins and learns (mistakes) day to day which I keep track of in an Excel document.
As the task is designed to be short, information can be limiting but consider doing this every day you work for a year, very quickly you will identify trends in how you succeed and areas of improvement.
Weekly Reflection
Every Sunday evening without question I spend a larger time frame, usually around 30 minutes looking back over all the information stored from the week just gone.
Our idea of success might look different, so to me, I want to understand: did I finish this week better off than the previous? Did I move projects forward, did I gather any learns etc.
This longer reflection allows me to determine this and plan better for the week ahead, I can use the wins and learns to identify trends in my week as time progresses and in turn tailor my week to hopefully allow me to secure more wins by learning from my mistakes.
Enter the micro adjustment idea.
The longer I do this activity the better my weekly insights are, I can therefore make micro-adjustments in the relevant areas to take bigger leaps in my performance.
An example of this could be in your job search. You apply to 15 companies but only 3 want to speak with you, during the interview I would ask ‘what specifically in my CV interested you to want to speak with me’. This information can then be gathered from 3 different sources and the results could be a micro adjustment in your profile that could give a much larger return on investment in your next round of application sends.
How can I learn from this?
With every mistake, you can learn something. With every learn you can make a micro adjustment and with every micro adjustment you can help springboard you into the direction you want.
My goal is to be a better version of myself, a bad day is just that, a day. But within that bad day, a massive amount of potential can be learned.
Therefore, with that in mind, I always want to ensure that every mistake from the week has reflective learning associated with it come Sunday evening.
Reflection combined with effective planning and micro adjustments work, as long as you are willing to stick with it as change is not noticeable within a few short weeks, it takes time and patience. This approach has helped me in all aspects of my life and if you feel it could help you I would encourage giving it a go.
