Everyone who hires me as a productivity coach is after the same thing, and it's something I can't really give them. They want more room. Not physical "room" – they've got plenty of that. They need room to think – to create, to plan, to tackle problems, to engage with other people with a more elevated level of focus and attention.
It's a common issue for productive people operating in high-octane environments. I'm not referring to full-time writers, public commentators or philosophers. In these professions, creative thinking is an obvious necessity, and they make space for it. Though the process may at times be difficult, it's an accepted part of these professions.
Rather, I'm talking about the majority of people who, though they are often called "knowledge workers", don't have in their job descriptions a clear delineation of the responsibility to think. They need to be leaders, managers and smart contributors. And most have added to that the personal job responsibilities of being a terrific partner, a great parent and a good person. But to perform any of these roles at a level that's acceptable to them, they have to think.
But it's hardly ever said that we actually need time, energy and an environment to do this. I suppose it's because to get a diploma or a job we have to demonstrate we can think; and that we've already done an amorphously sufficient amount, so why bother thinking that we need to build in room to think?
This issue is often associated with "time management". If thinking requires time, then I need to carve it out so that I have sufficient hours in an environment that is conducive to problem-solving or inspired expression. A noble objective, but the phrase "carve out time" is indicative of how difficult that can be. It hints at undergoing major surgery to our temporal existence.
But what I've discovered is that, yes, even though blocking time in the day to engage in the creative process is often required, there's a more fundamental way to get the room: clear your head. It's psychic-space management.
There could be some Einsteinian principle at work that allows our cogitative room to become larger to expand that mental function from a tiny cubicle into a giant warehouse. But my experience is that cogitative space grows more by getting rid of things than by adding capacity.
When it's time to move house, what do you do? Go through old stuff; decide what's still useful and what's not. You visualise the new space and what from your past will fit and what needs to be got rid of.
So, can you do the same thing with your psyche? Thoughts seem to come and go of their own accord. But you can stop rethinking the same ones, and you can stop the static and distractions that overwhelm the creative mental process. How? By paying attention to what has your attention , and finishing your thinking about it. You must first recognise what you're thinking about ("buy cat food", "I hate this rattle in my car"). You then need to decide what you need to do next to deal with it; and then park the results of that thinking in a way that your mind trusts you will engage with it later.
People who actually start to do this report huge increases in their ability to think, in and between their daily comings and goings. They don't ultimately expand their space. They just get to play around in it with a lot more freedom.
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