We have all been there. You are trying to solve a problem; you need a really great idea, but you are stuck in a thought cycle. You know what I am talking about. A thought cycle is where you end up repeating the same thought over and over in your head. An example would be repeating the phrase, “okay, I need to come up with an idea.” Personally my thought cycles are often accompanied by an action cycle. Usually throwing a ball in the air or pacing in my office.

While the intent of a thought cycle is positive, to keep our wandering mind focused, they actually are not helpful to the thought process. The faster you can break out of the thought cycle the sooner you will come up with that great idea.

A quick tip to help you break this cycle is to take a break and do something completely different. Find a five minute activity that requires your focused attention and will not allow you to think about the problem. If you can take a walk without thinking at all about the problem, then do that. Otherwise find something that holds your attention like playing a musical instrument, cleaning your office, or whatever works for you.

Then after five minutes are up, return to the problem. First review what you are trying to solve, and then what you already know. Finally, return to thinking about your big idea. You may just be surprised as to how effective this can be!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 11:06 pm and is filed under Innovation Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.