The Amazingly Simple Method to Hatch Great Ideas

From the printing press to antibiotics, the best ideas come through brainstorming and driving creativity. But everyone at some point has struggled with too many commitments to devote the time needed for innovation. Fortunately, GoodRx CEO Doug Hirsch has a method to overcome this problem .?

To improve deep thinking for consistently great and creative ideas, here are his suggestions:

The Actual Method Can Vary

To think of the best ideas, we need to create the space to focus without interruptions, which can look different for different people. Hirsch says he locks in several hours a week to sit alone somewhere in deep and creative thought, usually writing out his ideas as he goes. Former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner leaves 90 minutes of “buffer time” in his schedule every day — set aside to catch his breath, synthesize information, or meet with someone who needs coaching. Bill Gates takes “think weeks ” alone in a cabin in the woods twice a year to peruse pitches for innovative ideas or potential investments from Microsoft employees.

By stepping away from all the noise, we can concentrate on important decisions and higher-order thought. One survey found that the average successful leader dedicates as little as 30 minutes a day to personal training and development methods: They know improving themselves and learning new skills is never time wasted.

Here’s How to Start

1. The best first step to dedicating time to focused thought is to schedule it on your calendar. Setting time aside specifically to focus makes us more likely to follow through.
2. Next, come up with a list of questions to prompt deep, reflective thought : Where do I want to be? How much do I want to grow? Where can I still improve? Then, dig into company goals, generate new ideas for growth, or brainstorm potential solutions to a problem.
3. Find an environment free from distractions. People do significantly less and lower quality work when frequently interrupted?
4. Finally, fully commit. For many adults, rules and professionalism can bury our natural childhood creativity , but we can unearth our inner creativity with education and training. Keeping up a practice of deep thinking to spur creativity requires the discipline to not only set time aside for ourselves but also to actually do it.

When we prioritize making time to practice deep, creative thinking , we come up with better ideas. With greater practice, we make broader use of critical thinking tools and more easily access our highest level skills, leading to solving new problems or taking on new projects that advance the company. It takes discipline, but the more we commit to challenging our limiting beliefs and gaining a deeper understanding of the world, the better our ideas become for improving it.?

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Tom Popomaronis is Executive Vice President of Innovation at Massive Alliance, a global executive branding agency. Tom co-founded Massive's Executive Leadership Branding program – which transforms world-class executives into contributing authors at leading publications.

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