Rands in Repose has an article called Taking Time to Think. It talks about thinking needs time and rooms. If you are busy, you won’t be able to think. When you are busy or you are resolving problems in the urgent environment, Rands classified this as reacting, not thinking. Rands gives some examples on software engineering project:
…I will respond and my response might look like thinking, but I’m not doing anything creative because I’ve dealt with the showstopper two days before ship scenario IN EVERY PRODUCT I’VE EVER BUILT. Survived it each time, too. Got some great stories. It’s that experience I’m using when you walk into my office and tell me the sky is falling. I’m not actually doing anything new, I’m just telling you the story of how I propped the sky up last time.
Yes, you can argue that one can be exquisitely creative when one’s hair is on fire. It’s the necessity is the mother of invention argument, but, seriously, if you’re hair’s on fire are you going to take the time seriously consider all hair dousing techniques or are you just going to stick your head in the nearest convenient bucket before it really hurts? Panic is the mother of the path of least resistance…
He suggests there should be a block of time scheduled out for thinking – preferably meetings on brainstorming and prototyping. There are some good tips to lead on creative thinking within the meeting. They are good advices.
Taking Time to Think – [Rands in Repose]
