Slow Thinking, Wise Decisions
In today’s information world, the volume of distractions that bombard us in a single minute surpasses what an average person experienced in an entire month a century ago. 2.5 million terabytes of information is generated each and every day. I can’t help but think how distraction is playing down our ability to think. Yes, I know we read and hear about this topic quite often, however I believe it is something that needs continual reenforcement. We need a constant pursuit of minimizing our distractions.
We have to avoid the quick sand of thinking too fast.
Years ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about “Slow Mornings”. It talked about people who woke up and took their time before starting their day. Allowing themselves time in meditation, reading, or exercise. Letting their mind maybe wander a bit before diving into a full work day. Rising early, their mind would be clear by remaining in quiet solitude, free of interruptions and deadlines. They say it provides a foundation for productivity, calm and focus that lasts the rest of the day.
The older I get, the more this resonates with me. I believe in slow thinking. To illustrate, imagine trying to focus in a room with 5 people yelling and being loud. Or being in an office and constantly being interrupted (sound familiar?) Productive work cannot get done with distraction. Deep thought could not be achieved. However, if you created a distraction free environment, not just physically, but you setting boundaries for yourself, the amount of productivity that could be accomplished is very high. The ability to sink into deep work flow and creative thought would be easier, thus providing a huge mechanism to accomplish more with less time. This is why we see a vast amount of productivity apps all over the internet. Huge opportunity in high demand.
These days I value silence and a large block of time. Not to waste it binge watching Netflix (although I did enjoy the show Barry on HBOMax). However, use the time to read, write, and gather thoughts. Look at art or read poetry. Get creative. Watch the birds outside interact with the environment. This type of time is different than other types of time. No distraction time is the most valuable kind when you are trying to be productive. It gives me perspective in the world. I really have to put conscious effort into shutting the phone off during this time. Otherwise, all can be lost. Being interrupted by distraction, sets you back and takes several minutes to pick back up course.
The smartest people I know consistently speak of a routine around meditation, unplugging, and the value of silence.
Why do you think that is? Its because they know the importance to creativity, innovation, and self progression lies in creating valuable time. We could always rationalize taking that call or getting one more hour of work in? But…do we spin are wheels in doing this? Do we experience diminishing marginal returns in the form of our output? Absolutely. Think about how a clear and calm mind can make better and more effective decisions. Effective work is smart work. Smart work is like using a shovel to move dirt instead of a tiny spoon.
Slow thinking creates peaceful thinking because in order to slow think, you have to remove many distractions in your life. Distractions can come in all forms, both tangible and intangible. Being distracted is highly inefficient.
If you are a driven person who in a sense is spread thin mentally due to distraction, demanding work schedule, or stressful home environment (or all 3) your mind will be running 24/7. There are consequences to this, your sleep will not be as good, your more likely to make decisions based on emotion (or react quickly due to emotion) which can lead to constant alertness, releasing adrenaline and putting your brain in fight mode. Its like being chased by a bear all day. This leads to stress, chaos, and anger. This dynamic will put people in the busy trap, going from one thing to the next, because you cannot mentally prioritize. Peace of mind is needed to make proper judgements. On the flip side, comfortablity leads to laziness. Countries at peace, risk attack (which is why America always holds the mantra “We must act as though we are always at war”). Not staying comfortable and being diligent to continual purpose makes us hyper aware of our surroundings, causing us to source information or tools to solved our problems.
Good Decision Making Over Hard Work
You can be more productive and work less hard by making good decisions. My whole work focus is constantly centered around productivity. Why? Because its everything. Highly productive environments are competitively sound. It breeds higher happiness and morale. Higher productivity creates more for less. In all that I do, I look for ways to be more productive. Whether its tools, such as a piece of technology, or by spending several hours reading to gain new insights in a sea of knowledge. Productivity reigns king in our modern world. I worry about the future of productivity given the level of distraction we are faced with on a daily basis. If people could set boundaries on engaging in distraction (non productive work) while implementing smart decision making around highly leveraged activity, then we could see hope in future labor markets and individual achievement.
The quality of the decision you make is paramount and goes much further because we’re all leveraged in today’s world. You can be leveraged through remote work, community, media, capital, labor etc. But any smart person with every decision they make, knows how to leverage it in someway. This is why the quality of decision making is more important than anything else in your personal and professional life. If a smart company makes the right decision 85% of the time and its competitors make it right 55% or 60% of time, that first business will constantly have an advantage over their competitor. That’s a source of strength in great companies is great and calculated decision making (with high execution on strategy around rendered decisions).
Think about Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. They spend most of their time reading and thinking, finding inspiration to make innovative and effective decisions. If they lived in a stressful environment, constantly lead by reactionary work, they would fail to make highly leveraged wise decisions that are worth millions. Smart people create time to be on the side of slow think, creative work flow.
Obviously hard work is not the dominant solution to everything, good decision making and high leverage is a solution. Having a peaceful mind and being a happier person; relying less on momentary pleasure (instant gratification) and being calmer in general will allow you to get into the frame of mind that will platform yourself to make better decisions. It will actually increase your effectiveness, which will benefit your entire life. As long as the increase in effectiveness is higher than the reduction in drive, you’ll continue to grow relative to your previous behavior and patterns. You want to achieve your goals, not by being the one who worked the hardest for it, but by being the one who worked the most intelligent for it.
What’s most important in any role in life is creating time. However, create time to create highly leveraged activity. If I create an extra 10 hours a week for myself, I can use that 10 hours to read and slow think my mind around important concepts. This gives me a tremendous advantage when it comes to making rational (and highly effective) investment and business decisions.
One of my favorite quotes:
“If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend 6 hours sharpening my axe” — Abe Lincoln
