Strengthen the Weakest Link
When you have a complicated project, it's sometimes hard to figure out what to work on first. Like any prioritization task, the first step is to get an overview. You can't judge priorities without an overview. Once you get an overview, you can often identify the order...
The 24-Hour Rule for Reviewing Performances
What do you want to improve? Your presentations? Your powers of persuasion? How you run a meeting? Your joke telling? Your ability to answer questions? Whatever it is, to improve it, you need to review it. You may be thinking that means to record your performance,...
Need a Fresh Idea? Prepare to “Incubate”
Often fresh, new ideas occur to you after a period away from your work. That's why many authorities on creativity recommend taking breaks to let this process happen. But just taking a break isn't enough. How often have you come back, after a break, and been in...
Ideas on Breaking Habits
Here's an extremely interesting article which discusses the difference between making and breaking habits. Short version: Habits can be made, by adding actions to something that already happens. To break a habit, you can sometimes substitute an alternate behavior. If...
Ask An Easier Question
Asking yourself questions is essential in thinking. It's the way you get information out of your subconscious and into conscious consideration. Your subconscious is a huge repository of past observations, past conclusions, past training. It is where your expertise...
The Eye Movement Technique
There's much we don't know yet about the subconscious. Here's an example of a strange phenomenon that is sure to lead to interesting future discoveries--eventually: If you find you are obsessing on a thought, you can stop it with a simple rapid eye-movement technique....
Picking Favorites
Some years ago, I attended a seminar on "The Art of Introspection." The speaker (Psychologist Edwin Locke) encouraged the audience to consciously pick favorites. Wherever you are--in a hotel lobby, at work, watching a movie, reading an article--pick your favorite...
Thinking on Your Feet
I often get asked how to think on your feet. For example, suppose you are in a meeting, and your boss suddenly turns to you and asks for your opinion. How do you come up with a quick answer? You can't stop to "think on paper" in that situation. First, I want to point...
Use a Physical Process to Release Tension
I admit to being a fanatic who looks to thinking as a solution to all problems. I look for a psychological cause for everything that happens to me. And I look for a thinking process to help me deal with everything that happens to me. If I cut my finger, yes, I put on...
Having a Point
There are some skills that people self-identify they need. And there are others that they don't. Many people who have a problem getting to the point don't realize it. But when you talk with them, you see their problem reflected in your own frustration. They say...