Think of the last conference you attended. Likely, there was one session that wasn’t relevant, didn’t appeal to you or the speaker was so dry you had to employ a strategy to stay awake.
This happened to me recently. The presentation was not hitting the mark for me. Rather than leave the room or grab my phone and jump on e-mail or social media, I let my mind drift; I gave myself permission to forget the topic at hand and day dream. I grabbed my pen and paper, enjoyed the time and space I was given to think, plan and write. What a gift!
Eric Schmidt, a chief executive with Google, stated that our instantaneous devices are having a negative impact on our thought process — obstructing deep thinking and making learning more difficult. Researchers at Harvard found that when people have highly fragmented days, going from email to meeting to conference call to projects, their creative thinking was significantly diminished.
In his 1967 book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker stated that most executive level responsibilities require substantial amounts of time, not short bursts of attention.The daily demands and access to information has increased dramatically since he wrote the book, and the truth resonates in his words today.
Do you want to operate at a higher level? Do you want to be more effective? Give yourself the gift of time and space to let your mind drift. It will increase problem-solving, creativity and heighten your results.
Through NDSU’s Exec Ed Program, we have some upcoming events where we build in time for mind drift: The 7 Mindsets @ Work and the two-day Leadership Retreat at the Dakota Sun Gardens near Carrington ND. Details are are the Professional Development page — register yourself and your team today!
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few people engage in it.”~Henry Ford“We can’t solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.”~EinsteinFinally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.~Philippians 4:8