Binge Thinking
No time to think - Ros Palmer
Well, I’ve hit the ground running as usual on a Monday and find myself, at 2.30pm in the afternoon just catching my breath from ploughing through my to do list. In short, I’m having a cuppa and actually ‘thinking’ about stuff, not least the bumper packed two-day away team event we all enjoyed on Thursday and Friday of last week (more musings in later episodes…).
For now, I’m thinking about thinking. My colleague Ken sent me an article from the BBC website called: No Time to Think? It transpires that when Barack Obama met David Cameron, the pair got around to discussing thinking time - and the lack of it. It's seems the inability to grab thinking time during the working day is a challenge to our top potential world leaders too.
"These guys just chalk your diary up," lamented Cameron. "We call it the dentist's waiting room."
"The most important thing you need to do," mused Obama, "is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking."
Apparently unaware of the large fluffy boom mic accompanying their outdoor stroll, David Cameron and Barack Obama swapped fears of getting bogged down in the detail and never finding time to see the bigger picture.
Perhaps they knew they were being recorded? Certainly they couldn't have chosen their words better, Obama coming across like the chess-loving contemplative President Bartlet in The West Wing and Cameron balancing work and life more delicately than the workaholic stereotype so often associated with politicians.
As the BBC report says: “The political class, being "on" 24/7, may feel in special need of moments to step back from the everyday. But few of us complain of having too much time, whether at work or at home”.
So just how do we grab some thinking time? Well the article goes on to list lots of stuff (from actually having a lunchbreak to wandering around listening to classical music and seeking clarity on the loo! I often have my best ideas during such times and even suggested we produce Go MAD loo roll with a thought provoking question on each piece to stimulate thinking at such times. It’s been met with mixed results so far).
I live and work in the countryside (live in a village in Notts, work at the farm in the middle of beautiful Charnwood forest). After 20 years in London I do appreciate just getting out into nature to have 15 mins walk and thinking time. It really does clear the mind and can give brilliant perspective to a challenge when you switch off. We have a brilliant culture here to prompt excellent thinking, including not just the environment but also write on walls, pool tables and bean bag rooms plus non stop prompting from each other to raise our game by improving our thoughts. Phew!
Anyway, warming to the loo as a space for thinking idea and linking it back to the Obama and David not remembering their mic story I will post a next blog soon and show why wearing a live mike to the loo at a major conference is not always a good idea.
For now check out the BBC link to the article by Alan Connor at
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