Thinking can be a delightful, sometimes even luxurious pastime. But thinking, much like collecting ceramic figurines or watching reality TV, is only worthwhile if you actually do something with it. For the better part of my existence, I’ve spewed out more words than a caffeine-addicted parrot. Yet, somehow, my thoughts meandered aimlessly, never quite finding a cohesive path to trudge along.
Of course, turning the swirling vortex of your brain into coherent sentences is a Herculean task even for the most experienced scribes. So, if you find yourself paralyzed at the thought of crafting a single paragraph, rest assured, you’re in good company. Even the most battle-hardened writers occasionally wrestle with that one pesky idea that just won’t behave.
You could drown yourself in the sea of self-help books promising to teach you how to think more effectively. But let’s not kid ourselves; seeing out only that general advice won’t get us anywhere. Instead, let’s delve into the peculiar habits of productive folks and see how they manage to transform their mental clutter into reasonably readable prose.
For me, the pivotal moment in my writing career came when I started to chop my thoughts into bite-sized morsels. Taking frequent breaks and decluttering my decision-making process in other areas of my life miraculously freed up some brain-space. This newfound clarity allowed me to wrangle those nagging thoughts into tangible words, thereby making them slightly less obnoxious.
Another trick to upping your productivity game is training your brain to dive deeper. Productive people don’t just skim the surface; they plunge into the depths of their chosen subjects. This has been my modus operandi for years, despite my best efforts to turn myself into a Jill-of-all-trades and master of none.
True productivity in intellectual pursuits requires a laser focus on what genuinely fascinates you. Traditional schooling, with its whirlwind tour of a hundred subjects, seldom allows for this. Instead, it rewards superficial knowledge, just enough to pass a quiz or write a term paper. Dive too deep into any one topic and you risk being lost to academic oblivion.
This archaic and stifling approach leaves most graduates with a broad but shallow knowledge base. They know a little about a lot, but not a lot about anything. To be truly productive, we must revel in the topics we pursue. I once heard someone say you shouldn’t study anything deeply unless you’re prepared to write a book about it. This is sage advice, indeed.
In my humble opinion, thinking more productively involves three steps. First, identify where your deepest interests lie and focus on only those. Second, simplify your life by ejecting those brain-draining activities that offer no real benefit. Lastly, sit down and purge your mind onto paper. Write down every thought, question, and tangential musing. Even seemingly random and unrelated thoughts may be more connected than they first appear.
Creative magic happens when you start connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated ideas. But, unless you discipline yourself to think more productively, these connections will remain invisible. Train your brain to dig deeper into the subjects you love, and those epiphanies will start popping up like mushrooms after a rainstorm. Once you master the art of productive thinking, your life will follow suit, becoming a well-oiled machine of cerebral efficiency. At the very least, you’ll become a slightly less chaotic mess.
~ Amelia Desertsong