It may be natural for us to put in more effort when we don’t reach our desired goal. Perhaps we were conditioned at an early age to do the following when met with resistance.

  • Wake up earlier
  • Work later and longer
  • Push harder

Persistence is a noble character trait to have but without hard thinking, one can find themselves physically drained with diminishing returns.

I have met many good, hard working people who have found themselves in a constant state of feeling overwhelmed because they have yet to create the habit of “hard thinking.”

Somehow in our culture, we have associated “doing” with “self-worth.”

Many of us have even believed “The more I do, the more I’m worth.” 

And when I talk about scheduling time to think, I can see the confused look from audiences, from the thought of “doing nothing” and the self-guilt they will feel from “not doing something.”

Work environments are more complex than ever and scheduling thinking time is not a luxury but a necessity in managing change and discovering new ways to maximize talent.

The archaic focus on “how many hours did you work?” will be replaced with “What impact did you have today?”

2 Ways To Schedule Time To Think

1. Set a timer for 15min. and think of your greatest obstacle. Write down every thought of resistance that you can think of and through the next couple of days, you’ll be amazed at the ideas that come to you.

2. Sit and do nothing. No media, TV, Phone, etc. See how long you can go before you succumb to the feeling of the “need to do something.”

Scheduling “thinking time” may be unnatural at first but you may be surprised to the questions and answers you discover in the process.

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