Finding time to think: how to create more space for your ideas to flow

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New ideas, creative problem solving, strategising for the future – it’s the lifeblood of individual and organisational change, progress and growth. But how do you carve out the space to think when your daily life consists of email after meeting after deadline? 

 

TAKE TEN MINUTES EVERY DAY

If your calendar looks like a game of Tetris on the best of days, blocking out half days of thinking time probably isn’t realistic. Instead, look for ways to incorporate just ten minutes of creative thought each and every day. 

If you’ve read any of our articles on the psychology of creativity, you might spot a glaring issue in the above strategy. That is that scheduling in time for idea generation is unlikely to have the desired effect: the best ideas, it has been scientifically proven, come to you when you’re thinking about something else or performing some other activity like washing your hair in the shower. So rather than taking those ten minutes as a challenge to solve your business’s declining customer rate or a staff retention problem, use it instead to play creative word games or mess around on a creativity-boosting app – anything, in fact, but look at the problem at hand. Think of it as a way of loosening up your mind so that all the ideas already knocking around in your subconscious mind can spring forth at a later stage. 

 

MAKE SOLO THINKING A TEAM ACTIVITY

In open plan offices, chattering colleagues, beeping phones and pinging inboxes are one of the biggest challenges to you as you indulge in your thinking time. Precious minutes are more likely to be useful if those around you are engaged in similar activity. If it feels right, suggest in your team meeting that joint thinking time is scheduled at regular intervals, and work together to define the rules. Perhaps phones go on mute, computers are silenced and small talk temporarily put on hold. If there are very specific problems facing your team or department right now, that time could be used for individual brainstorm on the same topic, with a brief get-together at the end of the silent session to share anything that came out of it. 

 

ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN

If you’re really struggling to find “me time”, perhaps you’ve been suffering in silence too long. Few bosses will deny you the opportunity to come up with brilliant new ideas; a direct report might welcome the chance to take a task off your hands so you can lock yourself away in a quiet corner and find some breathing space (if delegation is a problem for you, read this). Build a business case for why a work-from-home day, and you might just find the gift of more time is bestowed on you. 

 

BECOME A SHARPER PRIORITSER

The key to success, said business thinker Stephen Covey, “is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities”.

This requires a subtle mindset shift, whereby instead of accepting every meeting invite that comes your way, you begin each working day, week or month, with a clear sense of what must be achieved, and fill up your time accordingly. That means that if thinking time is necessary, thinking time must be scheduled into your day, and anything that’s a ‘should’ or a ‘could’ takes second or third place.

If that sounds easier said than done, look at whether you have a problem when it comes to saying “no”, and act accordingly. Or if you’re in the midst of a meeting avalanche, read Successful meetings: it’s all in the preparation, in which David Grady outlines his thoughts for how you can avoid “Mindless Acceptance Syndrome” – the “global epidemic” he says is affecting office workers universally, whereby they opt in to meetings of which they know neither the goal, nor what’s expected of their attendance.

 

KILL YOUR TIME THIEVES

You know, those time-wasting activities you indulge in, which, if purged, could free up a significant amount of thinking time for you each day. In our Managing your time workbook, we provide a template for you to document how your days are spent over a one-week period. Or, if you’re a technology buff, look at some of the apps and websites that can help you track your desktop time and eliminate time-wasting activity. 

 

REDEFINE WHAT THINKING TIME LOOKS LIKE

Does the idea of “thinking space” feel too much like an indulgence? Then give it a new label. If your best ideas come out of reading or watching inspirational videos, redefine “thinking time” as “re-fuel” time, whereby you set aside time to catch up on all the content you’ve bookmarked throughout the week as essential viewing. 

 

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

What’s your ideal place for thinking in? If your best ideas spring out of conversations with others, look for opportunities to network informally or formally with inspiration people. If being in nature helps clear your mind, find fresh perspective by using your lunch break for a walk in the park. Think about some of the best ideas you’ve had recently and where, how and when they originated. You might find a pattern to unlocking your best thinking. 

 

More like this on the everywomanNetwork

Time management: 3 new ways to think about your productivity

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4 ways to battle through when you’re not feeling creative

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