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Give yourself time to think
“My working habits are simple: long periods of thinking, short periods of writing.”
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway has a larger-than-life reputation for his life outside his writing, yet was it truly outside of his profession as a writer? I put it to you that everything he did in his life (not only when he sat at the typewriter) was around who he was, a thinker and writer.
I am no Hemingway, but do look to follow his method. On my simple home page, it notes that my core offering is “Authentic Insight”, providing to clients who seek to truly make a difference: “authentic, creative, relevant and actionable insights”. In order to best deliver upon that promise, I have designed my working life in a specific way. Two key elements of that design are that a) I am “always active, never busy”, consciously restricting the number of active clients I work with to under half of my time, and b) I rarely take on any deadline-based projects, so eliminating much of the “busy-ness” around work of that nature.
As a result of this design, I have time a) to meet people, listen, learn, be inspired (and, hopefully, sometimes to inspire others), then b) to think, to muse on ideas…
