Using Pure Brain Power

Posted on October 11, 2007

The executive’s life today is full of interruptions and distractions. But the one tool we all possess remains the most powerful, even though no new hardware is available.

Do you know anyone who solves their biggest, most pressing problems while watching inbound e-mails and answering both their cell phone and their land line phone at the same time? Have you ever seen anyone come up with creative business strategies that take a leap forward while putting out fires, writing responses to inquiries, or answering staff questions? The answer is NO.

In 1987, when I was a young graduate student, earning my MBA, phones, faxes and U.S. Mail were the interruptions of the day. And we thought we were busy, dealing with urgent issues and interruptions all day – hardly any time to think about strategy. In the ensuing years, technology has moved forward quickly, bringing us cell phones that ring all the time, e-mail, and messaging that can reach us instantly at work or anywhere on our PDAs.

I love all that new technology. We are more connected, can do more things faster with less effort. We can get more information at our fingertips. But the one tool we each possess remains the most powerful, even though no new hardware is available. It is your brain.

Yet with all the pressure of all the things we need to do, most of us scamper about, trying to do more, using all our waking hours to do things like answer e-mails, write letters, call people, text message, have meetings, eat, watch TV and so on. All this activity crowds out what our brain needs most: Time to think.

Our brain truly is amazing. It stores all our memories, and can, without us even realizing it, synthesize all our knowledge and our observations into new ideas, new solutions and true innovation. But to really do its finest work, the brain needs time to process, and needs an owner who will focus all its attention on the task of thinking, for a period of time.

My Advanced Marketing teacher in graduate school, Alex Wong, called it Park Time. He advocated taking time each week to go to the park and sit on the park bench for one hour. We were instructed to bring nothing – no pen, no paper, no recording devices, and although he didn’t say in back in 1987, no cell phone or PDA. Just sit there, calmly. No exercising, no sleeping, do nothing but think. He promised that the first 30 minutes would be excruciating – as we would be itching to DO something. But if we made it through the first half hour, in the second half hour the real creativity would begin. We would start to get ideas, and develop those ideas.

It does seem a little weird, sitting on a park bench. And I don’t think it really actually needs to be a park bench. But it does need to be a place without distraction, where you can be comfortable, and where you can’t fall for the temptation of doing something when the first idea pops into your head. The first idea is probably not the optimal one. If you fall for the first idea and stop thinking, you’ll never find the better solution. No, turning off the cell phone and vowing not to open the PDA probably isn’t enough. If you’re like me, you’ll reach for it before the hour is up!

I’m a big believer in working fast and efficiently. But if what you’re doing isn’t the right thing, all that fast work will be to no avail. Running faster, just to arrive at the wrong place is always futile, just as selling each picture frame at a loss cannot be offset by volume. Of course, if you’re doing the right thing, then doing it faster and more efficiently is wonderful.

Alex Wong was and is right. We must force ourselves to stop and take the time to think deeply if we are to really solve key problems, or craft optimal strategies. I know, I know, right now you’ve really got to finish scanning this trade journal – then you’ll put Park Time on your to-do list…..

As for me, I’ve got to wrap up writing this column before my plane lands in N.Y., so I’ll be free to check messages on the cell while in the cab, then return calls. Aaahhh! Park Time is hard to find.

Let’s just do it: Ignore the phones, e-mail, interruptions and all the noise of daily business – just for an hour a week – and sneak out alone to an undisclosed location in the park.

Takeaways:

• For an hour a week, isolate yourself from all distractions.
• Think about your deepest problems and opportunities, without writing anything.
• After each hour, capture your best thoughts – then repeat the process the following week.