Our thoughts are like the weather. Sometimes our thinking is cloudy and other times we have crystal clear moments. Do you ever take the time to acknowledge the state of your thoughts?
By accessing our” thought” weather, we can provide ourselves with protection and make directional choices. By this I mean, when we assess ourselves as in a ” cloudy” state of thinking, we can avoid making critical decisions. Delay is a very useful cover from cloudy thoughts. When we are in a “clear” thinking period, this is the time to make decisions and choose paths to take.
How are you spending your day? In a proactive or reactive way?
Some times being proactive is a great way to proceed. Other times being reactive is likely the best method. Proactiveness takes energy and thought. Reactiveness does not take advance thought, but you might want to filter your actions. Reactiveness is likely good in times of low energy and creativity.
Everyone makes lists. Well – almost everyone. List making can be done on paper or via your computer or electronic device. I personally have a variety of lists, some electronic and some on paper.
No matter what type of list maker you are, it helps to actually review your lists from time to time. Lists are windows into our very being.
Here are some list resources to educate, amuse and entertain you.
Websites
Grocery lists – A site with interesting “found” grocery lists.
My last post focused on Thinking Outside of the Box. Fred, a frequent and insightful commenter on my blog made mention of how Sherlock Homes often performed unrelated tasks to further his thinking.
We can take a good clue from Sherlock Holmes, Sir Conan Doyle’s famous sleuth, in the novel Sign of the Four. When confronting a seeming insurmountable and perplexing conundrum of this case, Mr Holmes attacked the problem by doing something totally unrelated, namely performing chemistry experiments into the wee hours of the morning. It was only then that he was able to “think outside the box”, and the solution to his vexing problem appeared to him. Sometimes we need to use a skillful will rather than a strong will to think creatively.
Many thanks to Fred for bringing this concept to our attention.
Thinking linearly may work for many standard tasks and processes. Yet we all have times we need to be inventive and become creative. Thinking outside the box is a way to challenge our thoughts.
When is what you have too much? I’ve been thinking about this while watching the A & E television show Hoarders for the last few months. While not all of us go to extremes with collecting or have a mental health condition that makes us hoard and acquire too much stuff, we all do have too much of something. This “too much” hangs out in our office and workplace. Likely storage places for our excess are desk drawer, office cabinets and in the bookshelves. Now’s a good time to streamline your workspace and get rid of the excess.
At work
Scrap paper
Business trade magazines
Old business cards and outdated stationery
Examples (items saved to give us ideas)
Media we have no longer have the ability to “read” – Floppies, Videotapes
Software and clip art we no longer desire to use
Dried out markers and pens
Novelty items from vendors
Old breath mints and lotion
Spend some time over the next week, culling the excess, you will be glad you did.
We all need to focus on the activities we have to do. By focusing on the important and eliminating the unnecessary we can get more accomplished and feel better about what we are doing.
Here are three tips to make your more productive:
1) Look to improve the way you do things
Are you doing things the way you have always done them - even though things have changed? By spending time analyzing the way you perform your tasks you may come up with better methods and ways. This may include how you store the supplies on your desk, or by checking out the updated features you can use on your software programs.
2) Learn to say no
Taking on too many tasks is sure to slow you down and make you less productive and effective. Take on only what you can handle and let go of the rest.
3) Don’t be a perfectionist
Fine tuning documents until they are “absolutely beyond perfect” may not be the best use of your time (unless they are financial spreadsheets or instructions regarding health and safety). Set some project time limits for those pieces of correspondence or complicated emails.
The direction in which you think, apart from changing your immediate perspective, can be a powerful tool in developing new ideas, thoughts and processes.
Bottom up thinking means you look from the ground up. Begin by starting at the very lowest level, in fact, the smallest components. Bottom up thinking is looking at the trees in your forest.
Top down thinking means you look at the big picture focusing on the end results. Look to your mission statement and use it as your road map or mantra when using this style of thinking. Top down thinking is looking over the whole forest instead of looking at the individual or groupings of trees.
Either direction of thinking – top down or bottom up - may lead you on towards useful destinations.
A while back, Seth Godin and Tom Peters had an interesting discussion. I found Seth’s early statement about “meta cognition and thinking about what you’re going to say”, very relevant to “thinking”.
Our thoughts are like the weather. Sometimes our thinking is cloudy and other times we have crystal clear moments. Do you ever take the time to acknowledge the state of your thoughts?
