Problem-solving Skills : Chunking

One useful problem-solving skills would be chunking whereby a problem or challenge is broken up into smaller portions or chunks.

For example, it would be difficult to memorize a set of eight numbers such as 39726590 all at once. 

However, by breaking it up into 2 sets of number 3972 followed by 6590, it would be relatively easier to first tackle the first chunk before moving on to the second chunk and then combine both to form the full set of 8-numbers.

Likewise, it would be tough to spell "kakorraphiaphobia" without deliberately breaking it up into smaller chunks first such as "kakor", "raphia" and "phobia". (By the way, the aforesaid word means 'fear of failure'!)

By extension, if you are planning your wedding or a party and you want to decide who to invite, chunking would be useful, too. You could group your contacts into categories such as relatives (cousins, uncles, aunties), childhood friends, ex-classmates, colleagues, ex-colleagues, business associates, social cliques, etc., and work through each group to come up with your name list.

As with solving a jigsaw puzzle, chunking helps us to group similar pieces together and allow us to start on a small area and then join up the different chunks to form the whole picture.

Begin with the goal in mind, but start small with chunking and I am confident you shall be able to get a handle on your problems or challenges and conquer them. All the best!