It’s easy to overcomplicate things.

I recently solved a minor glitch in one of my websites. For reasons still unknown, a specific element would not position properly on iPhones. As I tried to fix it, I added line after line of code that was quickly becoming overly complex.

And it still didn’t work. Anything I did to correct the issue only made the problem arise on every other device.

So I disabled the feature entirely and sat on it for a few days.

This morning I tackled it again, this time I broke it down to the root and started fresh with a totally different approach.

And now, it works perfectly — with half as much code as the original version.

This situation happens often with code, but it’s a common theme in life.

Too often we make problems worse by adding emotion rather than breaking the problem down.

Step back, take a breath, and focus on the root cause.