Design thinking has its origins in the training and the professional practice of designers. Yet, these are principles that can be practiced by everyone and extended to every field of activity.

If you’re ready to start designing your life here’s one design thinking tip from Change By Design you can use right now:

Once a Day, Deeply Observe the Ordinary. Good design thinkers observe. Great design thinkers observe the ordinary.

Make it a rule that at least once a day you will stop and take a second look at some ordinary situation that you would normally look at only once (or not at all)—as if you were a detective at a crime scene. Be curious about the familiar things we normally take for granted. Why are manhole covers round? Why is my teenager heading off to school dressed like that? How do I know how far back I should stand from the person in front of me in line?

If we immerse ourselves in what Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison call “the Super-Normal,” we can gain uncanny insights into the unwritten rules that guide us through life.

Try it today. What did you observe?

Image from Thoughtless Acts / IDEO

(posted also on my LinkedIn Thought Leader blog)