Happy new year, everyone! I hope everyone had a happy and relaxing holiday break. Now that we’re in January, you might be making resolutions for the new year. I decided to keep mine simple this year with the following all-encompassing resolution:

Let the little things go and focus on what’s truly important.

We’re always hearing that we should not focus on little things. There’s even a book about it (probably more than one). As someone who fixates on and is easily irritated by little things, I get why people tell you to let them go. Criticizing others over things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of life is a waste of time and energy. It makes others not want to be around you, and it makes you miserable all the time because every little thing bugs you.

But sometimes the little things do matter. I was reminded of that this morning when I noticed we didn’t have any hot water. I started going back in my brain to see if I’d paid the gas bill, and I remembered then that though I paid all the other bills before the holiday, I didn’t remember paying the gas bill. Yes, there’s a lesson to be learned here about switching to paying all my bills online, but that’s another post for another day. Anyway, by the time it was all said and done, it took 3 phone calls, 2 cold showers, and an additional $70 to reconnect the service for a $30 bill. See, really, a $30 gas bill is a little thing. But not paying it turns it into a huge thing.

Along the same lines, there are things that might seem small at work that aren’t big deals in and of themselves. But if you leave them untended, they turn into big things that are a lot harder to deal with.

Checking on your team’s morale

If you are a manager, it is imperative that you check in with your team members on a regular basis to see how they’re doing. I don’t mean how they’re doing on their project. I mean how they’re doing in their heads. I’m assuming you want your team to want to work where they do, and enjoy their environment. That’s hard for them if they don’t feel like their manager is interested in their well-being. Some might think it’s not a big deal, or too “touchy-feely” to see how they actually feel about the team they’re working with or the work they’re doing. But here’s what could happen if you don’t ever check on your team’s morale: your working relationship is damaged because there’s not open communication, your team members’ confidence can be damaged, your team’s productivity takes a hit, you won’t make efforts to help your team members get a new project or work through a conflict with a team member because you’re not aware of it, your team members could leave your team or organization.

Tracking plans

Plans are easy to make. A lot of times we make plans, then go off and do the work and basically abandon the plan. Then you get a couple of months into it and realize you’re so far off the plan you’re not going to get to do part of the project you’d really hoped to fit in. Worse yet, you’re going to miss a deadline. It doesn’t take much to take a quick look at your plan on a daily or twice-a-week basis and see how close you are to it. Sure, you might slip off, but the earlier you catch it, the easier and quicker it is to course-correct and mitigate a risk.

Addressing issues

People don’t like conflict. They don’t like it if they need to address a bigger issue, like someone missing constant deadlines, and they don’t like it if they need to address what appears to be a smaller issue, like someone whose attitude annoys them. But sometimes you’ve got to address the issues that seem small but could fester and grow. Now I am not saying you should address everything that bothers you. If someone smells a little one day, let it go. If it’s a recurring thing that is affecting your ability to work with them because you’re distracted and feeling ill, that’s another thing. Generally I’m talking about attitude issues and the way people talk to each other here. Sometimes people will say things that rub you the wrong way. A good rule of thumb is to let it sit for a few hours or overnight. A lot of times, your annoyance will subside in that break period. If it doesn’t, I encourage you to go talk to the person who offended or upset you to get it out on the table. If you don’t, it will fester, and the next time they say something to annoy you, you’ll add it to the first incident and build a pile of resentment. It can get so bad that your entire attitude about that person changes and you have difficulty working with them. The 10-minute awkward yet frank conversation is much better than letting those little annoyances pile up until you can’t stand to hear that person’s name in your presence.

So carefully tend the little things in your life, and make sure they stay small enough to let go!