Not always you will find a teacher to guide you if you land yourself in a spot of bother. In cases like these, you will have to be self-dependent and conduct extensive research or carry out hit and trial methods to find a solution. If you are not sure how to begin or sharpen your problem-solving skills, then this blog is for you.
Mentioned below are some steps to solving problems. If you abide by these steps, you will see that you can tackle complex algorithms, numerical and questions in no time.
- Sleep Well
Most students like to burn the midnight oil to complete their assignments or prepare for exams. However, they forget that it is affecting their health and their biological clock. As a result, with time, they will develop anxiety and stress. And this, in turn, will affect studies.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep directly promotes creative processing in the brain. REM sleep helps stimulate associative networks, allowing the brain to generate new and effective associations between unrelated ideas. And it’s “not due to selective memory enhancements” like memory consolidation, which happens when you’re awake.
- Engage Your Brain with Brain Teasers and Puzzles
When playing chess, Sudoku, a Rubik’s Cube, or other brain-boosting activities, the winning method tackles the issue backwards rather than forwards. In real-life strategic-thinking circumstances, the same technique can be used. Practice logic puzzles and other games to strengthen your brain muscle and learn new problem-solving skills.
To sharpen your brain, you can also play computer games, like FLASH games. Meanwhile, if you struggle with problem solving at home, you should not hesitate to seek experts’ help. They prove helpful when grades matter the most, and you need a clear insight into the topic.
- Try Out Dancing
Did you know that dancing has a favorable impact on cerebral processing? It has also been studied that it resulted in the development of new neural pathways to bypass dopamine-depleted brain blockages. This means that dancing ballet or another disciplined type of dance can help you think more convergently.
In other words, it could be able to assist you in finding a single, appropriate solution to an issue. If you’re having trouble with an assignment or divergent thinking (finding multiple solutions to a problem), try some more improvisational dance styles like hip-hop or tap. Hopefully, this problem solving tip will come in handy.
- Practice Yoga and Meditation
Yoga practice requires a potent combination of bodily awareness, breathing, and meditation. Yoga has been demonstrated to improve cognitive test scores considerably. Shorter reaction times, increased accuracy and attention are among the other findings of a University of Illinois study.
Meditation refers to the practice of focused concentration. This is the process by which you bring back your attention to the present moment. So, if you are a regular practitioner, you will find it easy to focus all your energy and attention on solving the problems.
Meditation is generally assumed to help open up the mind. However, recent research suggests that it can help people avoid mental traps that make problem solving more difficult. Furthermore, yoga and meditation have added befits. It helps in maintaining hormone secretion and regulation. And, you get relief from anxiety, chronic pain, depression, etc.
- Create ‘Psychological Distance’
Now you might wonder what the essence of ‘Psychological Distance is.’ It’s “anything we do not experience as occurring now, here, and to ourselves,” according to the construal level theory (CLT). Taking another person’s point of view or dismissing the problem as improbable are two instances.
Scientists have discovered that putting more mental distance between ourselves and our problems leads to more innovative solutions. Thinking more abstractly allows us to make unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated concepts, allowing our minds to solve more problems.
- Employ Mind Maps
Mind Maps are a visual representation of an issue and its potential solutions. It can help focus the mind, stimulate the brain, boost creative thinking capacity, and generate more solutions. In this regard, you should draw your problem as the major notion in a Mind Map. Add “major branches” that contain all of the causes of the problem. Use “sub-branches” to delve deeper into the subject.
Create a separate Mind Map to represent all possible answers to the fundamental problem. Add “major branches” that indicate all the possible solutions to your problem. These may involve colleagues who can assist, approaches you may employ, and other resources you can use. You should make a final branch that will represent the main solution.
- Listen to Music While Solving Problems
The verbal fluency of cardiac rehabilitation patients was examined after exercising with and without music in research. The results showed that when participants worked out while listening to music, their verbal fluency scores more than doubled when they worked out in quiet.
In addition to this, you can also listen to music when you are working on a difficult assignment. It will help you in keeping your distractions at bay. For example, while studying, put on some light music available on YouTube and keep other notifications off. And if you are unable to solve the assignment, you should buy assignment online.
- Maintain a Diary or a Journal
When you maintain an “Idea Journal” with you at all times, you’ll be able to capture key thoughts rapidly. You can also write down personal experiences, produce sketches, and explore ideas. It’s easier to solve difficult questions by putting your thoughts on paper. You can then look at them more objectively rather than keep all of your thoughts in your mind (and provide better problem-solving strategies).
Now, we will take a look at the conventional steps to problem solving.
What is the Traditional Way to Tackle Problems?
Let us delve right into it.
- Identify the Problem
You have to identify the nature of the problem and get to the bottom of the issue. You must have a clear idea of what you wish to solve. When you’re trying to solve multiple problems (even if they’re small ones), the work becomes much more difficult. You must have a shared understanding of the particular problem you’re tackling if working in a group.
- Conduct Research
You’ll want to undertake some fact-finding and research about the nature of the problem. Essentially, you will be looking into probable causes after you have a clear definition of the problem you’re solving. This study could be researching the reasons for comparable problems that have been solved in the past. Or, it could entail creating interview questions to ask persons engaged in the situation.
If you solve an assignment or work on a project, you need to collect updated facts and figures. In this regard, you must pore through websites, blog posts, e-books, journals, university libraries, Google Scholar, etc.
- Search for Possible Solutions
It’s time to start thinking about possible problems after you’ve done your study on the issue. This step necessitates creativity and brainstorming as you come up with a few excellent ideas, as well as some backup plans in case the initial set fails. Creating contingency plans to prevent more difficulties is a common part of problem solving.
If you cannot find out the solution, you should hire assignment writing services from professional experts. The experts associated with the academic service providers are highly experienced, and they provide you with a top-notch write-up.
- Make a Decision
Once you’ve compiled a list of potential solutions, work your way down the list to the best option. If you’re working in a group, attempt to make decisions collectively and come up with a solution that everyone agrees on.
- Execute the Decision
Implement your chosen solution systematically and logically. Avoid taking action too quickly, as this will always result in a shoddy solution that fails to achieve the desired outcome.
- Await Results
Examine how well your solution is working and decide whether or not you need to take any additional steps. Before you follow up and decide whether or not to make adjustments to your plan, it’s ideal to set a time frame for observation.
These are some of the tactics that you can apply to improve your problem-solving skills at home. However, if you cannot decipher a problem, it is reasonable that you take the help of professional experts. They will guide you on how to carry out problem solving at home.
