Emma reflects on how powerful it is to give yourself time to truly think.
I’ve recently been reflecting on the moments where giving myself time to truly think a problem through has helped me to create the best solution! To me, thinking time is all about curiosity, questioning and making space to explore ideas. It’s about looking at things with a fresh pair of eyes, staying open to possibilities and letting your curiosity guide you.
Do you ever challenge the mentality of ‘Well we have to do it that way because that’s the way it’s always been done’? Creating space and time to freely think the problem through, without staring down the path of how it was done before, can open up the opportunity for a new perspective. Yes, sometimes the old way truly was the best solution, but it means you disregard chances to make a task easier, increase the quality of a process and ultimately create a better end product. Ask yourself, is there a better way to do this? What if I did X instead?
I like to create time for myself to think something through independently and see if I can come to the best solution myself. In this time, I like to step away from my laptop and draw out or write out what I’m thinking. This takes me away from other distractions and gives me a chance to be creative. I then sometimes ‘test’ my ideas against others, to ensure there’s nothing I’d forgotten or another great perspective that I’d not taken into account.
Another way of adopting this approach can be as simple as listening with an open mind when someone sees the world differently. Listening to and taking the time to adopt another approach fuels creativity! Small acts like this can help you to grow.
Imagine that you just witnessed a heated debate. Instead of immediately picking a side based on what your friends think or even what you’d usually believe, you pause, do some research and consider different perspectives. By questioning and exploring rather than immediately jumping to an opinion, you can come to a more balanced viewpoint (or even discover a new angle that you’d not thought of before).
Question, imagine and explore. How could you incorporate more thinking time into your day?