The daily prompt today: When and where do you do your best thinking, got me thinking about…thinking.  Thoughts are quite constantly running through my head.  I have to put my earphones on at night and listen to music (no lyrics) before I sleep, to quiet my mind and let go of my thoughts.

I would surmise that my best thinking happens when I least expect it, and clearly depends on the situation in which I find myself.  My best thinking about writing my blog comes at all times of the day and night; and typically, I’m not near a pad of paper or the computer to get the thoughts in print as they are happening.  Today, I find myself writing in the last half hour of my work day (please, don’t tell my boss!).

My best “work” thinking, that precious seven and half hours I document on my time-sheet each day, can be just as unpredictable.  There are days when I am in back to back meetings, at which I may be facilitating or note taking, leaving little time to think about anything but what’s in the moment.  It’s when I’m not the leader or scribe that I can really listen to what’s going on around me; this, THIS is when I do my best thinking.

A current co-worker made an observation to me one day.  She mentioned that since I started working with her, 3 years ago, she noticed that I draw pictures or jot things down when I’m in a meeting, regardless of the type of meeting.  One day she looked over my arm at what I’d doodled and said, “What a great idea? How’d you come up with that?”  I can’t remember now what the doodle was, but I told her that it helps me to make sense of information; to make “pictures” of what I hear helps me to generate my best thinking to solve a problem or explain it to someone else.

A former boss once wrote on my performance evaluation:  Kelly has the unique ability to take a pile of complex information and make sense of it for the rest of us.  She is a creative thinker and appears to enjoy solving complex problems.  I took it as a compliment since it was so early on in my career; even though at the time, I was not entirely sure what it meant.  Regardless, it’s a complement that has stuck with me and for that, he gets today’s Thank You!

Other WordPress “Thinkers”:

• When’s the Best Time to Think (Serendipity)
• Daily Prompt: Simply the Best (Basically Beyond Basic)
• Think, Thank, Thunk (Short and Feisty)