Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking?

Scott Miller

Where do you do your best thinking?

For me, it’s in the shower. Problem is, I feel too guilty to stay in more than four or five minutes and waste water, so my genius is always cut short.

Oh, the troubles we face…

Actually, I miss the days, when I lived in Chicago, of having a 40-minute commute. I got into the habit of keeping the radio off and using that precious time to just think. Review the day ahead. Issues I needed to tackle. Opportunities I wanted to conquer. With some quiet, focused time in the car, I benefitted greatly from this forced solitude.

Meditation with my eyes wide open.

OK – that was a stretch, but you get the point.

In 2020, there’s zero downtime. Everyone owns a pair of Beats, AirPods, or some type of headphone—and they’re not for minimizing noise. They’re for pushing more noise and information into our brains. I’m drowning in podcasts. I can’t possibly consume everything I’ve subscribed to. You too? (Here’s a tip: Cancel them all and just listen to FranklinCovey’s On Leadership with Scott Miller—it’s all you need to know anyway.)

The onslaught of information has hit a tipping point. Ask yourself, where and when do you do your best thinking? Or do you even think anymore? Alone. In the quiet. Just focused and thinking. Planning. Solving. Creating. Reflecting. Enjoying. Appreciating.

Or are you just consuming?

It’s likely that none of us are thinking as much as we’d like to. Need to. Especially those in leadership positions where the demands are ceaseless. To quote FranklinCovey’s Chairman and CEO Bob Whitman, “Thinking is a legitimate business activity.”

Today, scale back your “doing” and scale up your “thinking.” Take the proverbial shower on the road, and walk around the block, corporate campus, or neighborhood. Leave your phone at home. And your Beats, AirPods, or headphones. Just put your keys in your pocket and go for a walk.

See where your mind takes you. It might be truly freeing. If you’re facing a particular issue that needs resolution, focus only on that topic during your walk, and see if you can clarify some next steps without any music, news, traffic updates, or tweets bombarding your mind.

Forgive me, my shower is going to be longer tomorrow morning. I got some stuff to solve.

80% of your results will come from 20% of your activities—are you focusing on the right ones? Download The 80/20 Activity Analyzer tool to be more strategic in your process and more successful in your results.

About the Author

Scott Miller is a 25-year associate of FranklinCovey and serves as Senior Advisor, Thought Leadership. Scott hosts the world’s largest and fastest-growing podcast/newsletter devoted to leadership development, On Leadership. Additionally, Scott is the author of the multi-week Amazon #1 New Release, Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Follow, and the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team. Previously, Scott worked for the Disney Development Company and grew up in Central Florida. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife and three sons.
More Content by Scott Miller

Turn Passive Purchasers Into Passionate Promoters

Learn how to differentiate between the loyalty of convenience and true loyalty and the key to turning passi...

Future Success Starts Now

When’s the best time to plant a tree? Yesterday. When’s the second-best time? Today. Scott Miller dispells ...

7 Ways to Be More Proactive

Download Guide

Return to Home

Enabling Greatness in People and Organizations Everywhere

Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking?

Where do you do your best thinking?

Meditation with my eyes wide open.

Or are you just consuming?

Forgive me, my shower is going to be longer tomorrow morning. I got some stuff to solve.

About the Author

Previous Article

Next Article

Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking?

Where do you do your best thinking?

Meditation with my eyes wide open.

Or are you just consuming?

Forgive me, my shower is going to be longer tomorrow morning. I got some stuff to solve.

About the Author

Previous Article

Next Article

Most Recent Articles

We all need to network to fulfill our dreams. To turn nothing into something and to help others do the same.

Are you an originator, aggregator, or pollinator? It's never too late to discover your purpose.

These seven practices can transform your brand and level of trustworthiness with others in quick order. Commit to one a day for the next week and see what happens to your relationships.

Build momentum to achieve your goals with these tiny and easy-to-implement actions.

Do your friends challenge your thinking and expand your point of view? Reflect on the company you keep and discover your blind spots.

Did you learn your communication style, stumble on it by default, or consciously cultivate it as you progressed in your career? Are there styles that differ from yours, but may be just as effective?

As you inventory the arrows you have in your proverbial leadership quiver, your words are the most powerful.

We could all do more for our teams (and our children), but the question is should we?

Your shoes may be shined and your manicure perfect, but if you don’t deliver on your commitments and gossip about others, that quickly becomes the brand that’s remembered.

Principles constantly govern our lives and relationships. Scott Miller shares a few for you to consider as you look at how your organization connects with current and future clients.

“How much of what I do, say, and buy is based on what others will think of me?” Scott Miller gets vulnerable about keeping up with the Joneses and what we can do to counteract the social mirror.

Leaders and organizations can learn from Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin's ability to set a long-term vision that challenges conventional wisdom, current science, and even human capability.

Inspired by The Dad Advice Project, Scott Miller shares a parenting tip around the power of physical touch that he learned the hard way.

Are you choosing to sit in the suffering you know versus the challenge you need? Scott Miller shares some insights to help you connect to your purpose and impact, use your potential, and pivot.

Being open to new ideas, hobbies, and adventures will help you learn, challenge yourself, and grow.

Twenty years ago, I was promoted into a significant leadership leap in my career. And I received some of the best advice in my life from my first leader at FranklinCovey.

Become more deliberate about the words you choose, especially when talking about yourself. Talking negatively about others is gossip and toxic, talking negatively about yourself is even worse.

Be a bit more patient with letting people find their ways, stumble a bit longer before you kick them to the curb. Or better yet, reach out earlier and actually coach them.

Leaders responsible for building organizational cultures must lead with a clear vision and strategy while simultaneously reflecting an openness for changing course as needed.

Can you sense when something deeper is happening under the surface? If you want to build your intuition as a leader, it’s a muscle like any other—you must consciously build it.