When is Your Thinking Time?

Life these days is crazy.  It's hectic.  It's busy.  And it's only getting worse.  You constantly have more demanding your attention and more information barraging your senses.  In some ways this is great for creativity.  The more information you have, the more ingredients to mix and match and make your creations from.  That won't happen by itself however.  Read on to see what you may be missing.

Information and experiences are great.  You need both of them in abundance.  But you also need time to let them stew in your mind.  You mind needs idle time to process your problems, goals and opportunities and mash them together with everything else and let it all brew into something great.

You need thinking time!

If you want to see your creativity take off you need to allow yourself thinking time.  Time when you can be relaxed and just ponder.  It could be:

• when you go for a walk through the park
• sitting on a couch looking out a window
• sitting at your desk with a notepad and paper
• etc

I like to think while juggling or idling on my unicycle for instance.  I find that if I'm doing some activity like that then it occupies my subconscious, freeing up my conscious mind to think more clearly.

Make sure you timetable in some regular times for creative thinking.  Daily would be great but a few times a week is probably more practical.

Don't expect great ideas to just start flowing.  It could take some time.  It's not unusual for you to have no real brainwaves during this time but then it hits you later on.  That doesn't mean this time was wasted.  This is the valuable time when ideas start to form and incubate. 

To make sure this time is spent effectively you should organise it properly. 

• As best you can,  avoid distractions.  Turn your phone off.  Close your email client. etc.  This is why activities such as going for a walk are good.  If you're away from your desk your thinking time is harder for others to interrupt.
• Have something on you to record ideas.  It could be a notepad and pen.  It could be a dictaphone.  etc. Your mind will be wondering all over the place so you don't want to forget any awesome ideas you have.
• Try not to judge or criticise your ideas too much.  You want to encourage ideas,  not block them. 

This is your time to let you mind play and wonder.  Have fun with it and you are guaranteed to see results.

You're on your way to becoming a Highly Creative Person.