Productive Meditation
Long walks, runs, and bike rides are a perfect place to think deeply on a vexing problem. You’ll need to focus on the problem at hand, because the mind has a tendency to wander when working out, but if you can keep bringing yourself back to the issue at hand, you can gain clarity on difficult issues during these times.
How to
- What are the variables that make up the components of the issue at hand?
- Sometimes when I have many components, I’ll use the “1 bun 2 shoe” memory trick to put them into memory before I go out.
- What is the Next Step question that you need to answer?
- When your productive thinking session comes to a conclusion and you’ve satisfactorily answered the Next Step question, stop whatever you’re doing - running, biking - and write/dictate it down. Then you can move to thinking even deeper, or to a different question.
Tips for success
Be sure to notice when the brain is distracted/wandering and put it back on track, when you start looping over the same content again-and-again and move forward.
Graph:
- 109.35 Productivity - Productive meditation to 118.003 People - Cal Newport
- 109.35 Productivity - Productive meditation to 125.005 Books - Deep Work Cal Newport
- 109.20 Productivity - Schedule your day to 109.35 Productivity - Productive meditation
- 116.123 Life Lessons - Workout more days per week than you rest to 109.35 Productivity - Productive meditation