Thinking Properly (Part 2) - What and How Much?
I have written about "thinking properly" before, but
I woke up while thinking even more about "thinking" lol
Why don't we think properly?
That simple question
I thought it might apply to me now too, so
I will organize it a little more
Review of the previous time
By the way, the previous article is here
To "think" properly, clarifying and concretizing the "question" is important
If the "question" remains unclear or abstract, you cannot think properly
That was the topic
What is necessary for clarifying and concretizing the "question"
So, to make the "question" clearer and more concrete,
what do you need to think about?
Here, I will list three perspectives
Focus point (what to think about, theme, question)
Direction (what to aim for, the original purpose)
Depth (how deeply to think, level and time)
Focus point
The first thing to think about is,
What are you thinking about?
Specifically, what is it?
If this is unclear, you won't know what you are really thinking about
For example, if you are thinking about the content of a presentation material...
What is the theme you want to convey?
What is the ideal state after the message is conveyed?
What are the other party's prior expectations?
What is the common understanding with the other party?
What are the motivations and conditions that will make the other party lean in?
What does the other party really want to know?
What are the barriers hindering the other party's understanding?
and so on
After writing various things down, it seems best to pick out the important ones,
narrow them down to about three, and then further narrow them down to the single most important one.
That should be about right.
Premises (common understanding, prior expectations, what they really want to know)
Inquiry (what you want to convey -> message to convey, expression)
Expected results (ideal state after the message is conveyed)
Like this, classify them in the order of the process,
and decide what to focus on at each stage.
At this point, you will have a draft of the theme and the question.
Direction
To "ask" more deeply and get to the essence,
you need to further
"refine the question"so that you approach the core part.
In other words, while forming hypotheses about where the core of the problem lies,
you will refine the "question."
Thinking about the previous example,
if you can align the common understanding between you and the other party
and create a "question" that makes the other party lean in, that's Good!!
So, I will tentatively set it aside for now.
Is this the core part?
It is necessary to re-examine it.
Depth
The third point is a matter of degree.
How deeply should I think about it?
How much time should I spend on it, or can I spend on it?
If there is a deadline, it is also important to adjust the level
so that it fits well within that range.
There is also the aspect that because there are time constraints,
you can think more deeply.
Time constraints can also act as a healthy forcing function.
That said, I also want to improve the quality.
Within this time, how far can I raise the quality?
If you do that, naturally,
the themes to think about and the points of focus should narrow down.
With that feeling, while thinking about various things again today,
I intend to strategically create time to dive in and think deeply.
This article was written by
Shigeki Kawahara, a 'Future Realization Partner' who increases revenue pillars
https://mousoubiz.com/
https://twitter.com/mousoubiz