How to learn to think with your head

If a person can think and get to the bottom of things, he will have fewer problems and more free time. If not, he will have to spend resources on correcting his mistakes. Good decisions make the future easier; bad decisions make it harder. But the ability to think is not only the most valuable skill, but also the most difficult to master.

What stops you from thinking for yourself?

The answer to this question can be found in a lecture American essayist William Deresevich "Solitude and Leadership". In it, he mentions a study by scientists from Stanford University. They wanted to find out how today's students manage to multitask so much better than older people.

results surprised the researchers. They expected that they would discover some special cognitive abilities that allow them to work effectively in the mode multitasking. But nothing of the kind was found. On the contrary, it turned out that the more people try to work on several tasks at the same time, the worse they get out and the weaker their thinking skills.

Participants in the experiment who multitasked and thought they were doing a great job scored lower on all control tests. They were worse at distinguishing relevant data from irrelevant data and were more likely to be distracted. They also did not know how to use mental "file archive”, that is, sort new information into categories, send it to the appropriate memory cells and quickly retrieve it from there. In other words, their minds were disorganized. They couldn't even handle the defining skill of switching between tasks.

Multitasking not only precludes thinking, it impairs the very ability to think. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to form an idea about it. Not to study other people's ideas, not to memorize information, no matter how useful it may be, but to develop your own ideas. In short, think for yourself. And this cannot be done in 20 seconds, while simultaneously checking messages on social networks.

How to learn to think better

“My first thought is never the best,” said William Deresevich in his lecture. “My first thought is always someone else’s. It is always something that I have already heard about the subject, some kind of conventional wisdom.

According to his observations, we can come to an original idea only with the help of concentration. attention, patience and connecting different parts of the mind. Fresh thought can visit us if we give our mind the opportunity to make associations and find connections. Although even in this case, the idea is not necessarily a good one. It takes time to think about it properly, to make mistakes and admit them, to experience several false starts and correct them, conquer the urge to declare the job done and move on to the next task.

Great authors write much more slowly than everyone else. James Joyce worked on Ulysses at a rate of about 100 words a day for 7 years. Thomas Eliot wrote 150 pages of poetry in his 25-year creative career, about half a page a month. It is the same with any other form of thinking. To give the best result, you need to slow down and concentrate.

The most reliable way learn to think - Spend as much time on it as possible. Immersing yourself in a problem gives you an understanding that you can't get otherwise. If you find it difficult to force yourself to slow down and think, try writing. When you write something down on paper, you keep bad thoughts from slipping away. Misunderstanding, which was hidden in the depths of consciousness, takes on visible features. Mistakes that could previously be hidden become visible.

Writing well, like thinking well, takes time. And its quantity, which is at our disposal, allows us to determine how much we manage to make the right decisions. The busiest people often make the worst choices. They don't have time to think about the problem. In addition, they have to deal with the consequences of bad decisions made in the past.

Bad decisions accumulate and make things worse over time. It's like playing Tetris. When everything is bad, we need a specific piece to clear the field, and when everything is good, it does not matter to us what will fall out next.

People who know how to make the right decisions understand a simple truth: to make the right choice, you need to think right, and to think right, you need time. It can be spent now or later, trying to fix bugs. A well-developed mindset is expensive; an underdeveloped mindset costs a fortune. But it's better not to bargain with reality. If you want to learn how to think, take the time to write down your thoughts.