Why You Need More Thinking Time In Your Life

We run the company by questions, not by answers. -Eric Schmidt

She was putting in 15 hour days. Burnt out. Tired. Frustrated.

For years, I had been coaching her about the importance of strategic depth within our company.

Being that she's our CFO, co-founder, and my mom, she's a tough nut to crack.

She ignored my advice.

Just like I've ignored my own advice at times.

She likes to control our distribution and financial processes. They're critical areas for our company.

The day came. Her worst nightmare was met.

Our Warehouse Manager had to leave unexpectedly. She wanted to retire with Skylink, but life doesn't go as planned. Our journey is unforeseen.

In this instance, it took another course.

As an executive team, we should have better prepared for this by thinking about strategic depth — more strategically. 

This is a problem that persists throughout many companies.

It plagues people's lives.

By not thinking, we get trapped in the day-to-day and are buried alive.

I repeat it often,

To get out of the day-to-day chaos, we must set time aside to get above it.

Getting above it translates into thinking.

How To Think And Put Your Brain Into Action

Michael Hyatt has written about thinking before, and he calls it FFIT. Frequent, Focused, Intentional, Thinking.

It's a great place to start, but there are more details I'd like to add.

Make your thinking time FREQUENT

Thinking time is scheduled and part of your weekly routine.

If you set time to exercise, react to emails (shame on you), daily meetings, then thinking time gets its place.

It's not beneficial to have it sprinkled in throughout the quarters.

Thinking time has is done frequently.

Add a one-hour time block to your calendar at a minimum of twice per week.

My thinking time occurs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after I exercise, write, and get ready for the day.

I like this because exercising get's my blood flowing (I'm also already thinking when I workout), writing ignites my creative brain, and getting ready for the day puts me in the mode of…it's game time.

Stay FOCUSED when you think

As Michael Hyatt writes,

This requires single-minded focus, which you achieve by dedicating an entire "session" to solving a single problem.

My think time occurs in the same room, with the same notepad, using the same pen. 

Don't use technology to think.

Write it out.

I have a list of question prompts that I use during my thinking time.

The question/s I use for a specific think time session depends on what problem I'm trying to overcome or the opportunity I want to put in motion. 

An excellent resource for business-related questions can be found in the book The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham.

I'll write a question on the side of the page and begin listing bullets to answer the question.

Once I finish a thought, I'll add another bullet to keep my momentum going.

I don't stop for thirty minutes.

After the thirty minutes,  I'll review my think time notes and pull out key takeaways.

These are items I may need to explore in another think time session or things I'll add to my task manager for future action.

Thinking time is INTENTIONAL

A certain amount of thinking happens unintentionally—while at the gym, on a commute, or even in the shower. But the thinking that solves thorny problems or creates ground-breaking solutions doesn't happen by accident. It has to be done deliberately.

Unintentional thinking has its place.

It's how mental seeds are planted.

Reading a book, listening to a podcast, talking with a coach, taking a shower and poof, sparks thinking.

This type of thinking is reactionary.  It's unintentional and impulsive.

Being intentional about your thinking, you'll begin to get clear on the problem or opportunity you're thinking about, and being taking a proactive approach to how you think.

Don't forget to THINK

We get caught in the trap that hustling is the only way to get from point A to point B.

I've been there. I've worked LONG days that only moved my daily responsibilities forward. I was lost in the whirlwind of the day, always operating in reactive mode.

I rather work smarter than harder.

This takes thinking.

When the day-to-day tasks smoother us, our thinking capability gets lost. 

You build muscle and endurance through exercise. The same is true for your brain.

If you're not using it to think, to help resolve problems and take advantage of opportunities, then you're going to get lost in the daily reactive mode.

Don't get caught in a life that's in constant movement. Set time aside to think, and you'll be amazed at what it does for your life and career.