1. To think clearly, practice writing
Clear thinking is not what most of us want.?
What we really want is to make better choices and achieve success - money, power, status, fame, love - whatever success means. Some of us want to share our knowledge and experiences to solve a problem, a few of us maybe even want to become different people.?
No one’s losing sleep wanting to be better at thinking clearly.
Then why bother??
Because clarity is what we need to get what we want. To even realize what you truly desire, you’ve got to have a clear mind. It doesn’t matter what your profession is, or your privilege is, you need a clear mind to handle life’s gifts and curveballs alike.?
Today we explore writing as a practice to cultivate the habit of thinking clearly. This is part one of my series of essays arguing in favor of deliberate writing, continuing from last week’s post on ‘Why write sans AI’.?
If you take away one thing from this post, let it be this:
Clarity of thought brings clarity of purpose.
This is the “why”, and sometimes the “why not”, that drives all the hows, whats and everything else in between, in all that we do. In a world drowning in itself and taking us with it, a clear mind is a rare gift that we can cultivate through writing to sail these rough seas.?
But first, why is thinking hard?
Our brains are not designed to actively remember a lot. Studies have shown that we can only hold typically 4 thoughts at a time. The best of us can go up to 7 things at once. That’s about the capacity of our working memory - very much like any overworked parent. Our long-term memory needs periodic rehearsing and refreshing to work at our beck and call, like an eager puppy chasing its tail. Our subconscious mind, on the other hand, is a wily cat that comes and goes as it pleases. It has no master and no one knows where it lives or what it does to entertain itself. Then there is our emotional mind, an unpredictable baby that can throw us off course for reasons even it can’t explain.?
Things get more complicated as we can process only what we can remember and connect via context building. And on top of that, what we remember is not guaranteed to be what we originally learned or experienced . Despite the seeming internal anarchy, we go about our days just fine making hundreds of decisions without thinking thanks to our complex brain networks that know when to invoke which parts of the brain to action. They may not be optimal or accurate, but they get jobs done.?
Trouble begins when you have been feeding bad data to your brain networks for a while and reinforcing its automatic responses by not providing it feedback. Thinking is a way to pause, reflect and provide crucial feedback from time to time to keep the mental engine running in the right direction.?
Thinking is hard because of how our mind works and our limited understanding of how to best engage it. Clear thinkers, however, seem to have stumbled upon the holy grail. They have their systems and methods to either circumvent the mind’s limitations and directly invoke these powerful brain networks at will or have ways to set up the optimal conditions to allow for the spontaneous activation and deactivation of specific parts of the mind as they wait for inspiration to strike.?
Whatever the method, when orchestrated under a clear compelling purpose, our mind becomes remarkably capable of original thinking, novel discovery, invention, and inspiring feats of will.?
Obstacles to clear thinking
Before exploring writing as a tool for practicing clear thinking, let’s look at some common obstructions to clear thinking. This will help us define the purpose for our writing practice better.
The ‘Too Much’ problem
An overloaded or overstimulated mind suffers the problem of “too much”.? It has too many distractions, too many ideas, too much information, too much misdirection, too many obligations, too many problems, too many worries, etc.?
We are likely to flee or freeze in response to this snowballing avalanche. We cannot engage our conscious mind in this state.
The ‘Too Little’ problem
On the other hand, a one-track mind is brought down by the problem of “too little”. It is often struggling to find ideas, running out of options, having no time to think, not having enough motivation, not enough privilege/cushion to take risks, hiding behind ‘I’m not creative’, ‘I have nothing new to say’ type of excuses to compensate for too little support or validation it feels it has, etc.?
Stay in the desert of “too little” long enough, and we could end up abandoning our purpose even before beginning its pursuit. A ‘lack mindset’ breeds more lack. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that turns us into folks leading lives of quiet desperation in Dickensian misery.?????
While the first two are problems of quantity, the next two are problems of quality that can muddle one’s thinking.?
The ‘Status Quo’ problem
When we are too fixed in our mindset, or too attached to our identity or beliefs, we can face what I call, the ‘status quo’ problem. ‘Why fix what’s working’, ‘let’s take the easiest way out’, we think. Our minds default to ingrained patterns of thinking and doing, consider traditions and rules as sacrosanct, have trouble ‘killing the darlings’ as Stephen King would’ve put it, succumb to social expectations and pressures, do what’s trending, do the opposite of what’s trending etc. just to stay on top.?
Stability trumps quality here. This heuristic thinking can keep us trapped in our comfort zones.??
The ‘Direction Ambiguity’ problem
We’ll likely encounter the ‘direction ambiguity’ problem after we have managed to overcome the problems of quantity and rise above our status quo if we don’t have a clear idea of our objectives. We have a good set of directions to take but do not know how to choose the best.?
This is a different kind of a quality problem, one that can lead to analysis paralysis. You overthink to the point where you can neither see the trees nor the forest.
Stay in this labyrinth long enough and you’d lose your focus and motivation to persist thinking on the topic. Procrastination is the biggest threat that can sneak up on us with this problem.?
How can writing ease you into thinking clearly?
Imagine the racing, distracted mind as an object in free fall which is gaining momentum as it chaotically spirals down. In Newtonian terms, its crash is inevitable - unless something more powerful stops it.?
Writing can be that equal and opposite force to arrest the free fall and bring it to a standstill. Not only can writing then recharge the static mind’s potential, provide it with new direction, and push it to shoot for the moon, but it can also help build capacity and escape velocity to leave behind ingrained negative patterns and solidify new habits to achieve the intended moonshot.
Writing, when done with consistency and specific intention, can help navigate the aforementioned hurdles. It can free and expand an unbound mind while training it to focus within the constraints of preset goals and intentions.
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The idea is to let our mind alternate between wandering and focusing while broadly staying on the problem we are attempting to solve. Give it time, space and resources to do its thing.??
Four ways to use writing to gain clarity in thinking
To counter the “too much” problem we need to first empty the mind and free it from its shackles so to speak. The goal here is to free up precious mental real estate so that it can do what it does best - think and make connections.
You can do mental dumping with writing in many forms. Use freewriting to verbalize information overload, preconceived notions & biases, and emotional baggage. List all pressing problems in a book of “things to deal with” or within your productivity software. If you want to shift your perspective while you are at it, call it your book of puzzles.?
Capture noteworthy thoughts in a pocketbook. These days elaborate writing systems like Tiago Forte’s “The Second Brain” are easily available to help with this goal.?
My favorite method of mental dumping is ‘Morning Pages’ from Julia Cameroon’s book, The Artist’s Way. I highly recommend this book for just about everyone, not just for the creatives.?
Once you empty your mind, you should feel light and relaxed. You are now in the right state of mind to expand your thinking.?
You can address both the “too little” and “the status quo” problems by consciously expanding your mind. The trick is to operate from the curiosity of a beginner’s mind. The goal is to see connections in related and unrelated areas to increase the chances of stumbling across novel insights.
The rule is: there are no rules. No right or wrong questions or answers. Ask questions, ask enough questions. Look everywhere - inside, outside, upside down. Write your pressing questions and sleep on it. Look for answers out in the world - books, people, studies etc. Invert the question over its head.
You basically must come at your problem from different vantage points.?
Don’t worry about the quality or clarity of your thoughts at this level. The more the merrier. The mundane, the absurd, the inexplicable - capture them all in your writing. Use sketches if they are easier to visualize your trains of thoughts. You are going to have more than one.
What we are doing with our expansive writing exercise is creating the best conditions to engage with our default mode network aka the unconscious mind. Remember the wily cat that comes and goes as it pleases? Well, if you place a fresh bowl of milk and tasty fish at your doorsteps often, you are more likely to spot it and even befriend it.
To avoid the ‘direction ambiguity’ problem, it is important to clearly identify and define the problem(s) you want to solve and state why they are worth solving. This must be done at the outset, soon after emptying the mind, and not during or after the mind expansion phase. Also, describe what kind of rewards you seek by solving those problems and what it would feel like if said problems did not exist. This is a way to prime your mind to sustain focus.
The goal of writing for focus is:
Don’t waste time and your attention trying to figure out the best way to collate the above information. The key is to keep showing up and making small progress. That’s why writing templates, frameworks and productivity apps work great here.
But you could easily also write for focus, sitting in a people-free, device-free space with just a notepad and pen. Make an outline. Have a list of standard questions to answer and keep your writing to bullet lists. Only elaborate on the why and how it would make you feel. Then extract the main points onto a page or a poster that you can look at as you chip through your work daily. Also writing down daily plans, progress made and challenges faced can help here.?
Feedback is a key ingredient in refining our thought process. It’s essential for all three stages mentioned above. With writing, you have the unique advantage of being the one giving and taking the feedback.?
Reviewing past writings regularly, both at the project level and at a general reflection level, can reveal a lot about your blind spots, strengths and challenges. I suggest a weekly review to keep the activity manageable, sustainable and immediately useful.??
Maintaining running notes on these observations can greatly improve your thinking. You can do it as often as you like through the day or a few times in a week. Be sure to give feedback on both the good and the bad. Many maintain a separate appreciation journal. This can be especially helpful in case you are used to being self-critical or have trouble accepting appreciation.??
Make writing for clarity a habit
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
- Will Durant on Aristotle’s ‘Virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions”
That means the more we practice watching, organizing and distilling our thoughts deliberately the better we get at clear thinking. Writing is a simple and effective tool to help us do just that without overextending our mental limits. While writing for the purpose of observing our thoughts is different from writing to glean insights from immersing in a topic, all deliberate writing approaches inform each other and enrich the overall quality of our thinking process.?
In summary, to think clearly:
In the long run, with the habit of writing for clarity, we are trying to make critical thinking our default mode of thinking where we can hold opposing views in our mind without feeling pressured to choose a side. It means we can form and reform our views on subjects that matter independent of public sentiments and subliminal persuasions.
Evolved writing reflects elevated thinking. Elevated thinking translates to intentional living. Intentional living can often lead to a life lived with meaning and without regrets.
What writing for clarity can’t do, however, is help us implement a clear plan of action. That is the domain of our will and routines, a different topic altogether. Thinking clearly through writing can remind us of what and why something is important to us, encourage us to adopt better routines & tools, and even cheerlead our will. But ultimately it is our gut that takes the leap to action or plunges us down the cliff of inaction. That’s where nurturing our emotional mind comes into play.
More on that in next week’s essay on writing for emotional well-being.