Why You Should Find Time To Think

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According to the Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity philosophy, you have to know what you are trying to accomplish with any given project. In other words, you have to know what Done is in order to get there.

I incorporate moving new projects into my system as part of my weekly review. However, I rarely take the time to think about what I am trying to accomplish.

Photo by sbcar

Using my Bonsai method, I actually have a filter where I look to make sure that all of my projects have an outcome. However, I only check for the word, not that I actually have done the thinking. So most of my projects right now do not have an outcome specified.

Why Don’t I Specify An Outcome?

I think one of the major reasons I don’t actually do the work is because I am trying to whip through my weekly review as quickly as possible. For me, the weekly review is all about processing and filing. It’s not about thinking.

The Benefits of Thinking

I can see that the benefits of thinking about projects, especially ones where the steps are not obvious, is not only to figure out when the thing can be called completed, but also to figure out if this is something I should do, and if I should be doing it now. Part of my problem with overwhelming projects lists can be traced back to this, I am sure.

Carving Out Time To Think

So the next question is, how do I find time to think. Unless I am willing to cut into my sleeping time, there is very little time during the day when I am isolated enough to do a major chunk of thinking. I turned to the Internet to find what could help. Here are my results:

• LifeHack’s How to Find Time for Yourself
• InContext: Finding Time: It’s a matter of approach
• LifeHack’s Finding Time
• Copyblogger’s Find Time To Write (which can be extended to other types of
• activities

Some interesting takes on an interesting topic. Basically, finding time means making it a priority, and don’t get distracted/interrupted.