Thinking versus Doing

How to Manage Your Time

How much time do you spend thinking about a problem before trying to solve it? Do you rush straight into a burning house or do you take a step back to first look at the floorplan?

Thinking involves creating steps for doing tasks, analysing and exploring multiple methods, looking for opportunities and threats, deciding the needs of a task, looking at the bigger picture, and finding the necessary tools for the job.

Doing involves carefully following predetermined plans, actioning items effectively and efficiently, creative ‘on the fly’ thinking and problem solving, and using all required resources towards the successful completion or implementation of a task.

In order to start doing action points on any project, detailed thought and planning are crucial. Thinking begets doing, but how much thought is necessary to execute a solid strategy? We will be exploring two different approaches to problem solving and project management, one focusing on the “thinking” and the other focusing on the “doing”.

The “Thinking” Approach

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein