Troubleshooting: Learn from What Doesn’t Work

Your Style System: What Does It Look Like?

Last week, I kept track of the small things I was doing every day with my wardrobe. It was an exercise that helped me see the value of being intentional—even in just small ways.

Zooming out, I noticed a natural next step would be to look at how these little actions fit

into the bigger picture. Then I thought—what big picture? What I’m doing feels so fragmented. One day I was taking care of garment maintenance, another I was doing a little shopping, and another I was updating a wardrobe inventory. Where am I going with all of this? (not really sure!) My system, on a larger level, needs some help.

A system is simply a way of doing things, and for our wardrobes, that includes buying, maintaining, and using what we already own. Today, we’re going to look at how to improve the way we do those things so that getting dressed starts to serve us better.

Big Idea: Learn from What Doesn’t Work

Before we can take the steps to improve, it helps to understand why something isn’t working. James Clear reminds us that our current habits are perfectly designed to give us our current results. If those results aren’t satisfying, it doesn’t mean we’re doing everything wrong; it just means our system needs some troubleshooting. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel; we just need to make it turn more smoothly.

On Learning to See “Failure” Differently

No one loves realizing something they’ve done has fallen short. Tonight, the dinner I made really missed the mark, but for some reason, I can shrug off kitchen fails. It’s not fun to make a meal that doesn’t come out well, but it doesn’t dampen my sense of adventure in the kitchen. I don’t see it as a reflection of who I am; it’s just part of learning how to make good food!

I wish that same mindset came as easily when it comes to what I wear. For me, that’s been a lot harder. When my wardrobe falls flat, I tend to take it personally. Perfectionism rears its head, and before I know it, I freeze up because I'm afraid to fail. The season slips by, and I haven’t dealt with any of the problems. I stay stuck.

My hope is that this exercise can be a step toward a healthier working relationship with “falling short”, and use it to bring more intentionality to our style system.

Inspired by FMEA (Failure Mode & Effects Analysis)

I’m using a very loose adaptation of a framework from engineering called “Failure Mode & Effects Analysis” (FMEA). Engineers use it to identify problems, assess them, and decide what to fix first—maybe we can think of this as a bit of style engineering :)

I came across this concept earlier this fall—when my dryer broke, of all things. While researching how to troubleshoot it, I stumbled on FMEA and thought it might be helpful to use a super-simplified version to address our wardrobe issues.

Troubleshooting Your Wardrobe

Let's look at the steps first, and then we'll walk through it.

Step 1 — Identify What’s Not Working (Your “Failure Modes”)

A failure mode is simply any way your wardrobe, getting-dressed routine, or system falls short—or potentially become a problem.

Here are some of mine:

1. I have a hard time finding an outfit in the morning.

2. My styling lacks creativity.

3. I’m not prepared for special events.

4. I’m stuck in a jeans rut.

Step 2 — For Each One, Consider These Questions:

Cause: Why does it happen?

Effect: What happens because of this?

Step 3 — Prioritize

Impact: How much does this affect you? (a little/somewhat/a lot)

Effort: How hard is it to fix? (easy/medium /hard)

Step 4 — Plan of Action

What small steps can you take?

Keep an eye on your progress: you can document it and make adjustments as needed.

Choose which issue you deal with first. You can tackle the ones with the highest impact and lowest effort first to gain momentum.

Example

Let’s go through it with my first one: “I have a hard time finding an outfit in the morning.”

Likely causes: No planning. Lack of interesting options.

Effect: I’m frustrated and stressed, so I end up in jeans and a sweater (see my #4!).

Impact: A lot! It's no fun starting the day like this.

Effort: Easy to medium.

Small first step: Choose two or three ready-to-go outfits.

Making a few outfits ready to go

Ideas for more steps: Use the Stylebook App to pre-make combinations, book some regular time to play with the options in the closet, gather some outfit inspiration online, make a wishlist.

A few things I'm noticing: Rating the effort involved feels like a guess, but the steps can be broken down so that it becomes as easy as possible.

Writing out what's not working also helped me to see that some of these problems are related to one another. My "fail modes" 1, 2 and 4 overlap. That should mean that when I start to address one of these, it should also help the others. Bonus!

Your Personal Style Audit

To help you get started:

1. In the last month, what has made you feel frustrated or stuck about your wardrobe?

2. What does it look like during these times? How does it feel?

3. For each problem, what’s the likely cause?

4. Which problem would make the biggest positive difference if fixed? (Rate each easy–hard.)

5. Which problem seems easiest to fix? (Rate each easy–hard.)

6. Choose one small action you can take tonight to address the high-priority, low-effort issue. (Make it something doable, 10–30 minutes.)

7. Give yourself a week and keep tabs on your progress.

Tiny (Atomic) Habit Ideas to Pair with Your System

I think we all know if we aren't intentional about this, our good intentions may slip through the cracks. So, figure out when you're going to work on this:

“After I brush my teeth, I’ll pick my outfit for tomorrow.”

“Every Sunday afternoon, I’ll set aside 30 minutes to create three outfits”

“At (whatever time), I’ll troubleshoot my wardrobe”

Closing Thoughts

Style isn’t just the result of what we wear—it’s paying attention to ourselves while we’re in the whole process. Today, we looked at how we can bring some focus to that process by turning trial and error into something useful. Having some regular time to work on our wardrobe issues can lead to moments of insight that can move us forward instead of staying stuck.

Next week, I'll let you know how my first tries at this went. See you then!