Logical thinking is amazing and will save you time and effort generally. Fatal traps appear with logical thinking when you start to try to be more innovative or inventive. This is the important part of staying up with the latest trends and technological changes. You will be taking a large risk if you ignore the weak points of logical thinking. Read on to see how to over come these risks.
Before we delve further into the 3 Fatal Traps it is important to look at some background information. As with all learning it is vital to keep an Open Mind while studying as many of these ideas are counter-intuitive and they appear to be simple inconsequential ideas. But as you dig deeper into these ideas and give them a try you will find the value of the ideas will grow exponentially.
1. Your Mind Becomes Your #1 Obstacle
This happens when we work against the natural processes of our brain. Let me explain. When we are trying to write a report, we think it would be good to just do it all in one single go. This seems to be the quickest way as it has the least number of steps. But if the report is too complex for our mind then we find that we hesitate for some time or freeze because we are not sure where to start. This indecision is part of the fatal trap that blocks you from remaining highly productive. Does this sound familiar?
To get off to a quick start is very important with any project as it has been shown as the number one cause of slow progress. If that is true then it super valuable to get started in any way possible as quickly as you can. To do this we need to look at what is causing us to hesitate or freeze? The answer is simple, the task is too big and complex to do in one step. That means we need to break it down into manageable chunks. By breaking the task down, we are now able to apply 100% of our brain power for each step thus making the task much easier to do. Now we are able to get off to a flying start which will save us valuable time with much less effort and also stress. Simple yet very effective way to avoid one fatal trap to maintaining high productivity.
Example of a mind-map draft for an educational speech on Vocal Variety
Mind-mapping is the ideal tool for the job at hand. It simply breaks the task down into 3 or 4 steps where we are able to use 100% of our brain power on each step. This technique is actually a confidence booster as it makes us look and feel much smarter as well as achieve a superior result in less time. The real trick here is recognising that even using the extra steps that a mind-map involves you are still doing things the easiest and fastest way. So, give it a go next time you are attempting to write a report or organise a project.
Treat your mind-map as a draft, that is very important. This will free you up from the distraction and hesitation that comes from trying to do a perfect job straight off. Remember that drafts can be modified quickly and easily so it important to just start straight away and come back to make amendments. Even if you only have part of the information you need jot that down onto your mind-map. This will assist you to defeat indecision and procrastination.
Aim to have too much information and then you will be able to eliminate the weakest ideas leaving you with a better result. Step one is to place all the main topics in boxes near the corners of the page. Then add in supporting information in point form only along a line between the centre box and the one you were working on. Step two is to decide what order you are going to write the material. So, go ahead and priorities the order of writing. You can even prioritise or number the points in order that you want to use them, that would be better than my example.
The third step is to review your information points and to add or delete any that will improve the report or project. Remember this is a living document in draft form which means it will change as you think of new ideas to add and there could be some ideas that are no longer relevant that you remove. The fourth or final step is to take the latest draft mind-map and convert it by writing the final version of your report or project outline.
Using mind-maps is so powerful as it let’s you use 100% of your mind power for each step. This has the effect of increasing your abilities by doing the work in small simple steps that are much quicker and easier to do. Thus, you will end up with a far superior result with less effort and stress along the way, all because you followed a clever creative technique that has been used effectively for many years.
This idea of breaking more difficult tasks down into component tasks works well no matter what area you are working on. It will help you avoid some of the fatal traps that logical thinking can lock you into.
The main benefits are the same, a quicker start because the work will be less complex. This will alleviate any form of indecision or procrastination. On top of that you will get a boost as you will feel smarter as you are able to make better progress on the simpler tasks without the brain strain you had in the past. This in turn will help reduce any stress you may feel from tackling this project. Don’t take my word for it but give it a go for yourself to see how effective it is! You will be surprised. If you have a story of how you have broken your work down to make you more productive let us know in the comments.
The other 2 fatal traps of logical thinking will be covered in other posts soon.
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Work Less & Achieve More