Thinking Time: Your New Secret Weapon

On this episode of The Friday Habit, Ben and Mark discuss the idea of making time and space for thinking, planning, and reflection, as inspired by the book “The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham. What if you were to spend the same amount of time thinking as you do mindlessly scrolling through social media? You may be surprised by how much clarity you can gain from setting aside this intentional thinking time, even if it is only 15 minutes a day.

In his book, Cunningham outlines the 5 core disciplines of thinking time:

1. Find the unasked question – Ask better and better questions of yourself until you nail down the core problem. 
2. Separate the problem from the symptom – Don’t stop at just diagnosing the symptom; there is always a root issue that needs to be uncovered and addressed.
3. Check your assumptions – Don’t rely on your feelings or perceptions about how things are going; rely on facts and try to be objective.
4. Consider second-order consequences – Think about the long-term implications and the potential domino effects of your actions.
5. Create the machine – Design the process, execute, and surround yourself with the adequate resources.

Also within the book, Cunningham offers self-reflection questions for further discovery. You may also find it helpful to set a timer during your thinking time, have specific materials and a dedicated space for thinking, and to bake thinking time into your schedule and then commit to doing it even if you have other things come up. Your action item after this episode is to block off 2 hours of dedicated thinking time for next week.

Links:

“The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Less-Stupid-Keith-Cunningham/dp/0984659269

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