If you are not in the habit of doing this… get a blank piece of paper or a blank whiteboard and give yourself 5 minutes to do nothing else but stare at the blank page with a pen or marker in your hand. It sounds weird, but don’t even come with an idea of what you want to write before you start.

I have found that this practice is extremely helpful in several ways. First, it forces me to figure out what is most important to me that day. I stare at the page for a while and it makes me think… “Is there a problem I need to solve? Is there a relationship that needs to be strengthened? How can I be better? Why am I failing in a certain area?” and so on. At no other point in my day do I get to ask these big problems aside from when I have a blank page in front of me. Secondly, it helps me to objectify my issues, concerns, successes, etc. and think about them in a way that helps me duplicate my successes or prevent my failures from happening again. Lastly, it makes me happy. I get happy because for at least a few minutes, I am doing something because I want to do it, not because it needs to get done or someone told me to do something.

You can go on to write things down if you want, but even if you don’t, you will find yourself creating a plan for the next 2 hours, 2 months, or 2 years. Teach yourself to create space for free-thinking.

Thanks,

Josh