T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
Step 1: Make a Creativity appointment
You’ve got a report to write, a presentation to prepare, a prob-
lem to solve. It will require more than just effort and time. You
need inspiration.
Make an appointment to meet with that inspiration and do some
brainstorming. I’m serious. Get out the calendar or the day planner
and mark off a couple of one-hour sessions just for thinking.
If you don’t schedule the time, you won’t “find” it, and the
thinking you need to do just won’t happen.
Schedule that appointment at least a day and preferably longer
ahead of time, and plan the session to coincide with a time of day
when you’re most alert and awake. Clear all interruptions.
Step 2: tell Your Subconscious What You Want
I know of a top executive who took his staff on a working
retreat to a ski resort. He held meetings with them all day Friday,
and at the end of that time, he spelled out the problem to be solved
at Monday morning’s meeting, admonishing them to prepare thor-
oughly for the session. Then he turned them loose for a weekend
on the slopes.
They, of course, gave the problem no conscious thought what-
soever—which is just what he figured would happen.
He knew that the problem would lodge in the subconscious of
at least some of his advisors, and when the brainstorming began
on Monday morning, they would surprise him—and themselves—
with insights they didn’t even know they had.
Such is the power of the subconscious mind.
You can bring that same power to bear on a “brainstorming
session” of one. And you don’t need a ski resort to do it.
Review the problem and the solution you’re after. Be sure
you’ve defined the problem clearly and specifically, but don’t limit
the scope of the potential solution. (You don’t want a better potato