Problem Solving Strategy - Doing Things That Are Free

One problem-solcing strategy that I made up and like using is taking an inventory of things that are “free” for me to do and do those things. If it is “basically free” to do, then you do not tire of it, or get energy.

This can be a reasonable way to recruit things, people’s help, favors, or just energy into your life that can help you with the things that are not free for you to be doing.

Let me give you some examples.

For some people, listening to people’s problems in a state of acceptance feels very natural and easy. It is “free.” For somebody else, this can be very tiring and straining, and they have to go recover their energy in some way.

For some people, doing mechanical repetitive work feels “free.” It feels not tiring and costs them nothing to be doing. For other people this is exausting.

For some people, solving math problems is fun and easy. For other people it is tiring and hard.

See what I mean?

If you know what kinds of things are very easy for you, you can do trades with people. If you are listening to people’s problems and they are hanging out with you, they might be more than happy to do some mechanical work for you or solve some problems for you that are easy for them.

I have found that a lot of people aren’t very good at noticing both what is “free” for them to be doing and appreciating its value to other people, because it feels free to them, and in noticing what kinds of things they could ask other people for, because they are easy for the other people.

I’d also noticed that people can be pretty bad at noticing which energy aspects of themselves can be hard for other people to metabolize, and which ones are pretty easy. I have found people misidentify what the “hard thing” is about themselves pretty often, and consider the ways around them to be pretty limited. I think this is a shame, and people who can make themselves easier to coordinate with by doing something with what’s hardest about them, even improving on it by 20%, can make a really big difference for other people.

One of the reasons I like the concept of doing free stuff is that as easy as the free stuff feels, making progress on your “hard” stuff can be really hard to get help with or get awareness of. You can ask people who are in a good mood because you helped them to chip away at your hard problem somehow, or keep you accountable on your goals around yourself working on the hard problem. You probably won’t know exactly what would be helpful for you, what would feel good, or what you even need to have more meta-awareness about, but when someone is happy with you and wants to help you out and when you’re in a good mood because you are feeling competent is a good time to chip away at something hard.