Thinking time

It's easy to see progress when you're doing lots of little tasks: sending emails, washing dishes, and answering the phone. Thinking work, on the other hand, doesn't look or feel as productive. However, it's often 10x more valuable.

I could complain and oh so nobly shame us all for not being better at this – but I'm not going to do that. That would make it harder for us to behave well, and it's a common fallacy to assume that all we need is more motivation. Instead, I'll share some of the systemic ways that I make it easier for me to do the thinking work:

I have a "Big Ideas/Thinking Time" appointment on my calendar (a three-hour block every three weeks). I found it works much better when it's at least 90 minutes because I need time to warm up my brain and get fully into real thinking work.

I have a list of big ideas/big questions that require big chunks of time. When it's Thinking Time, I load up this list and decide which item(s) I'm going to dive into. I have found that if I start my Thinking Time with a list of topics ready to go, it is far easier to get started.

I have a whiteboard in my office (actually, it's a cool stick-on whiteboard that was cheaper and easier than a traditional one: https://amzn.to/3xQhUJw. I also have an art sketchbook in my briefcase that serves as a mini-whiteboard when I travel. I find that writing the ideas down makes it easier to react to what I'm thinking, plus I feel like I'm actually accomplishing something during my Thinking Time.

In short, find ways to make your proactive work (thinking) feel as productive as your reactive work (problem-solving). How do you remind and/or reward yourself for thinking work?