The art of thinking: 5 steps to improve your life and business

Erman Ergün
Jotform Stories
Published in
8 min readOct 10, 2019

When’s the last time you sat down and thought long and hard about something?

We live in a fast-paced world. We want what we want, and we want it now. Nothing’s better than instant gratification. Somewhere in all of this, actually thinking about things has become a dying practice.

To understand the art of thinking, first, we need to talk about a few things we often confuse with thinking.

The first one is worry. Worrying is not the same thing as thinking. Worry takes no special effort. We encounter a problem, or anticipate one, and we automatically worry about it.

Worry is based on fear and an expectation of pain or anguish. Its effects can be debilitating. Worrying does not make sense of the problems you’re facing, nor does it provide a solution. It just rubs the implications in your face.

Analysis is another mental exercise that’s often confused for thinking. Analysis has some benefits because it’s a vital part of thinking, but its effects quickly fade away when it stands alone.

Analyzing our situations, the problems we face, or the opportunities we want to take advantage of helps us understand prospects and implications. However, analysis alone will not help us figure out what steps to take to actually make progress.

The art of thinking, on the other hand, is a calculated, guided mental activity that removes distractions, fears, and worries and allows you to purposely go on a journey for ideas, thoughts, and directions that will help you better your life or business.

Charles Fernyhough, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of Durham and the author of The Voices Within: The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves. In an article he published in Psychology Today, Fernyhough described thinking as having the quality of “an internal conversation between different perspectives.”

He suggests that within every person is a myriad of views, perspectives, and approaches, and that when thinking is done right, it can become a full-blown internal conference that can lead to progress.

So how can you think productively? Here are a few ideas:

1. Identify and eliminate all distractions

The number-one culprit may be in your hand right now — your phone. Most adults are so wedded to their phones that they immediately pull them out whenever they have a spare minute — at a stoplight, waiting for food to arrive at a restaurant, sitting on the toilet. (You know it’s true!)

The truth is, that tiny device is stealing the most productive times of your day — time to reflect and think. If you don’t take some time in the day when you power down your phone to just be in your own head, you’ll never know the gems hidden in there.

A study headed by Timothy Wilson, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, discovered how far people will go to avoid introspection. In one experiment, 64 percent of men and 15 percent of women began administering electric shocks to themselves when left alone to think, even though they had previously said they would pay money to avoid receiving the painful jolt.

Second to your phone, busyness also plays a huge role in the absence of thinking. How many times have you asked a friend or colleague, “How are you?” and received a reply like “super busy” or “swamped”?

Consider all the activities you engage in. Can you cut some of them out? Researchers have found that doing something that isn’t intellectually demanding and that allows your mind to wander, can increase your creativity and problem-solving.

2. Identify your thinking level

How do you think? It’s a difficult question to answer, probably because you’ve never thought about your thinking before. Being aware of your thought processes is what experts call metacognition.

There are at least three levels of thinking. You should aim for the third level if you want to be super productive.

Level-one thinkers are observers. They simply take information at face value, never questioning it or analyzing it to see its different dimensions or weigh its value. Just about anyone can think at this level.

Level-one thinkers seek out information that confirms or informs their worldview. Students who believe everything a professor says fall into this category, right along with anyone who believes everything they see on television.

Level-one thinking is where problems are created and where problems dwell. As Einstein once said, “You can’t solve a problem from the level of thinking that created the problem in the first place.”

Level-two thinkers are more critical. They interpret information, make connections, and derive meaning. Thinkers at this level analyze aspects of what they observe, place them side by side, and connect the dots to find meaning. They approach life with questions like “Isn’t there a better way?” and “Is this all we can offer?”

Advancements in technology come from level-two thinkers. They like to improve what is, rather than innovating what isn’t.

Level-three thinkers, on the other hand, are willing to stretch their minds. These are the innovators and transformers of society. Few people practice level-three thinking, but you have to if you want to live the life or run the business you dream of having.

Level-three thinkers are the ones who can take a concept or principle that they learned in one area of life — engineering school, for example — and apply it in a totally different and unrelated area of life, like relationships.

They are out-of-the-box thinkers, and they see life from different perspectives. They go beyond asking “How can we do it better?” to asking “How do we remake it totally?” Their ideas are novel, unconventional, and transformational.

You need to stretch your mind to think past the first two levels.

3. See the big picture

One of the reasons you aren’t thinking right may be because you don’t understand what it is you want to think about.

Big-picture thinking is the art of first discovering what you want to think about. If you’re trying to grow or run a business, you’ll have to ask questions like, “What am I trying to achieve?” and “What end results do I seek?”

You have to find out if your current strategies are working and why or why not. Observe situations closely so that you can identify what doesn’t fit. Imagine the long-term effects of your current attitude and strategy in life and business.

If you practice big-picture thinking, you understand the problem and situation clearly. It’s akin to what engineers do when they fix an engine. You may initially think the problem is coming from one part of the engine, but when you check the entire engine, you may find that it’s, in fact, coming from another part of the engine. A husband may think his lack of cash is the cause of his marital problems, but if he thinks more broadly, he may find the problem to be his attitude about his finances.

Once you’ve figured out the problem, you need to find a thinking strategy.

4. Develop a thinking/meditation strategy that works

The first thing to do is to find some time to think that works for you. Determine what time of the day you are most relaxed and creative, then find a thinking spot or position. You may decide, for instance, to set aside the first two hours after waking up to think. Or maybe it’s the last two hours before bed. You may decide to sit on the balcony in a yoga position or on your favorite chair. Whatever you do, make sure you’re in a quiet place and have a pen and paper.

To get your mind to a place of peace, you’ll have to lead it. Letting your mind wander often takes you to a state of worry.

Thinkitate

Thinkitation is a term coined by Tomas Bilyeu to describe using the afterglow of meditation to solve the toughest problems in your life. This is one way to go about thinking: Consistently tell your mind to be still, repeat whatever words make you feel calm, and try to breathe easy until your mind is devoid of distractions and you find some clarity.

The idea behind this strategy is that once you find that clearness of mind, you can proceed on a thinking voyage into your toughest life or work challenges. Ask yourself questions and try to see the problem from different angles. Generate ideas and strategies in that calm afterglow and write them down.

Isolate yourself

Another strategy that might work is to interview yourself. This means totally isolating yourself from the problem in your mind. Look at problems or opportunities as though they are someone else’s. Have you ever observed that most people can easily advise and counsel others but can’t seem to generate a single idea to help themselves? It’s like when you watch a soccer game. You know exactly what the team should have done to win the game because you weren’t out there playing.

If you use this strategy, you’ll get your mind to the place where you’re answering questions from a totally neutral observer’s stance. Whether you’re trying to build a business or a relationship, you’ll be shocked by what great advice you can give yourself. Make sure to write it down.

“Idle mental processing encourages creativity and solutions because imagining your problem when you aren’t in it is not the same as reality,” said Jonathan Smallwood, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of York in England. “Using your imagination means you are, in fact, rethinking the problem in a novel way.”

Buddy up

If these strategies don’t work, you may be a “conversational thinker.” To a degree, we all get a mental spark from good conversations.

If this describes you, you may want to find a thinking partner — someone you can call for a brainstorming session and bounce ideas off of, someone who won’t derail your thoughts by introducing off-topic conversations. It could be a junior colleague at work, your spouse, or a friend. It’s always wise to do this in person. As you converse with absolute focus and ask the big questions, your mind will travel to depths that you didn’t know existed and produce ideas you didn’t know it could.

Do some idle activity

If these don’t work for you, you may be someone who needs an idle activity to focus on. It could be bouncing a ball off the wall, swinging, jogging, or any activity that helps you find clarity. Once you find that peace, begin thinking intentionally.

5. Do it!

After you think, look closely at what you wrote down. Make sure you went deep enough and didn’t settle for your first thoughts and ideas. You may share your ideas with mentors and friends to get their opinions. However, the most important part of the thinking exercise is that you implement the ideas you generated. Once you have solid goals, broken down into specifics, start knocking them off one by one.

Make radical attitude and strategy changes if needed. Don’t pause to ask the “what ifs” at this point. You should have done that while thinking. All you need now is to do it! Often, to get the best counsel, you don’t need to move an inch. You just need to find enough peace within yourself to produce it.

Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash

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Responses (1)

What are your thoughts?

great perspective !