How To

I have been going on and on for the past few blogs about problem solving, but I realized I never gave a well defined set of instructions for problem solving. You can look all over the internet and find a million different ways to cognitively use problem solving. I will you my own personal experience of money problems through college to help walk you through these steps.

First: The first step in my opinion is the most important. Some people skip this step or they just take it for granted. The first step should be identifying what the problem is. I know this seems like common sense, but there are levels to this. Many people only look at the superficial layer of the problem. You have to dive in and get to the source of the problem. I am in college and I am having money troubles. Nothing too concerning, but enough to where I notice that I do not have as much money as I should. I had to stop and decide what was causing this problem. Was I spending too much on food? Is my job not paying me enough?

Second: The second step after identifying the problem, is to create a plan to solve this problem. I found out that I was spending too much money on food a week. I was going out to eat at least everyday whether with friends or at work. I decided that I needed to make a change. So I decided that I needed to reduce the amount of times I go out to eat every week.

Third: The third step, is to put this plan in action. So to solve my problem I decided to start eating at home more often. I also started bringing my lunch to work. This allowed me to save money and it also allowed me to eat more healthy. Before I started bringing my own lunch to work, I would eat at a pizzeria everyday. I would buy pizza, subs, and chicken fingers almost on a daily basis. Now I try to eat fruit and salads. This is just a secondary effect to me bringing my lunch. I did not do this for the intention to eat more healthy, but it was an added benefit that came along for the ride.

Fourth: The fourth and final step, is to evaluate your results. Did your actions solve your problem. Were you able to achieve your goal goal through your plan. If the answer is no, then you need to repeat steps one-three. Maybe your plan was not correct and you need to take a different route to solve your problem. What you identified as causing you’re problem could not be actually contributing in a major way. What if I thought spending food was my problem, but in actuality it was how much I spent going out to bars every weekend. Me cutting cost on food spending would help, but it would not put a dent in my problem. Until you can diagnose the actual reason behind your problem you will never be able to truly solve your problem.

Through my experience and from what I have researched, these four steps are all you really need to problem solve in a beneficial way.