Do You Have Enough Time to Think?

Do you have enough time to think?

I don’t think I do. No, wait. That’s not right. I don’t make the time to think.

This thought has occurred to me at various points in my life. During one of my first long-term jobs, my supervisor, an amazing woman, told me she actually scheduled in thinking time. She explained that otherwise, as a manager, she would just end up going from one meeting to the next, never having time for doing actual work, or processing the contents of the endless meetings. At the time, I thought this was a smart idea. Now that I am older and wiser, I know it was a brilliant idea!

Once the responsibilities of adulthood take hold — job, mortgage, kids, credit card bills, utility bills, student loans etc. — there is more to worry about and less time to think. Once that job becomes more of a career, it gets even worse. Ironically, the more responsibilities we have, the less time there is to give thoughtful consideration to the decisions that must be made on the job, and at home. What is worse is that our culture, at least here in the U.S., seems designed to create distractions, leaving even less time for thinking.

It appears as though life is designed to keep us from thinking. (“Dumbing down of America,” anyone?)

Allow me to illustrate. A few years ago, when I was still working for someone else and suffering through a painful daily commute, I would sometimes use that time to think about the side business my wife and I were starting. I would start to plot out some strategy, or work through a creative block I was having, and then I’d hear it. The silence roared throughout my vehicle. I needed to turn on the radio. I figured some light-hearted banter from my favorite morning show personalities would be fun, and some upbeat tunes would keep me awake during the long drive.

It’s nearly impossible to really think when listening to the radio. I don’t mean running through your shopping list, pondering what you’ll make for dinner, or ruminating on the reveal from last night’s tv show. That’s easy and the radio is fine background noise for that level of thought.

What I mean is deep thinking — the kind where you make unexpected connections, ask yourself revealing questions, and listen to your core and the Universe for answers.

I listen to the radio all the way in to work. Once there, I chat with some co-workers as we fill our coffee mugs in the break room. Next, I check my calendar, scan through email, and prepare for the first appointment of the day. On the way to the conference room, I remember the creative block I wanted to work through on my way to work. I resolve to work on it over lunch. I tell myself I could even take out a pen and paper and do some brainstorming. Feeling good about my decision, I go into the meeting.

Later, it’s another meeting, and soon I find myself accepting a lunch invitation. It’s been a long and frustrating morning, and venting with co-workers sounds like more fun than sitting at my desk alone. Perhaps during my afternoon break I can jot down a few ideas.

On my break, I take out a pen and paper, and then pick up my phone, just to quickly check Facebook. My sister is on vacation and I want to see if she has posted any pictures. I spend a few minutes scanning through the posts, close Facebook, but then I see it’s my turn on a game of Words with Friends I’ve been playing with my wife. I should take my turn so she knows I am being attentive to our new way of connecting while we are away from each other. Soon my break is over, and it’s back to work. I will definitely put some thinking time in on my commute home. It will be quiet and without distraction.

Except it’s not. There are unlimited distractions.I notice the tent city that cropped up under the bridge seems to have expanded. I wonder why the back up on my approach to the freeway is at least a block longer than usual. Checking my traffic app., I consider taking another way home using more surface streets. After deciding surface streets are the better option, I realize how sleepy I am. I need some noise to stay awake. I know during this time of afternoon the radio is filled with traffic reports and commercials which I have no patience for. I pull over briefly so I can find a podcast on my phone and connect it to my car’s sound system. I find the podcast aimed at entrepreneurs to be very inspirational. If only I had more time to work on my own business…

Later in the evening, when I actually have some free time, and really should put some effort into knocking down my creative block, I just don’t feel like it. I am tired after a long commute, then cooking and cleaning up the dishes. Sitting and watching a couple of episodes of one of my favorite shows on Netflix sounds like a nice way to relax. It is.

Before I know it, another day has come and gone with me mostly reacting to situations in a rote manner and every time I get close to thinking about anything serious, a convenient, often electronic, distraction sweeps me away.

I can’t be alone in this. I know others have felt it, too. It feels like with all of our gadgets and technology, there is always something calling, begging for my attention, hinting that I might miss out on something important. As I consider it more, I can feel it, lurking in the shadows, waiting to grasp me and pull me out of my own thoughts if I wade in too deep. What is it pulling me towards, though? Is its dark lair one illuminated by the glow of a smartphone, the smell of fast food in the air while Netflix endlessly streams its latest offerings?

I fear it is.

My life is quite different now. I work from home with my wife. There is no commute. I plan out the goals of my part of our business a year ahead of time. Every week I fill out my calendar with the tasks I need to do to stay on track with achieving my goals. We don’t turn on the radio, or podcasts, unless they are specifically scheduled in for a particular purpose. I usually do not check any social media during my work day, unless I have a specific business-related reason for doing so. I have successfully cut out many, many of the distractions that were formerly such a problem.

Still — I have not made enough time to think.

I perform my tasks, and they certainly require thought, but I am still not doing the thinking that leads to big breakthroughs and creative whirlwinds.

I’ve added such time to my calendar, but it is the first thing to go if I am behind on other tasks. I wonder if I have been conditioned against this type of thinking? Our culture values and promotes electronic distractions, but it also values being on task. Perform the task at hand — write the report, program the database, fix the problem — whatever the case may be. It is rare that we are encouraged to step outside the parameters of the task and make leaps of logic or faith, and we absolutely are not encouraged to take time away from routine work to explore such activities. Certainly most jobs and careers, reward those that tow the company line. Management likes hard-workers, as long as they work toward the stated (and unstated) goals and norms of the company.

Now, I am management for my own company. I don’t need to follow anyone else’s guidelines and I understand the value of “outside the box” thinking. Why am I still so hesitant to make the time to really think?

Some might think there is something I fear looking at deep within. That could be, but I don’t feel the reverberations of truth as I ponder it.

Is it simply because deep thinking is hard, and like all skills, requires practice? Or is there something in our cultural conditioning that I am struggling against? Perhaps the answer is not one or the other, but both.

If you have any ideas about this, please share. I believe there is something interesting here that deserves some, well….thought.