In 168 Hours (coming out May 27!) I discuss the idea of “strategic thinking time” as a best practice for the working chunks of our weeks. It is quite easy to get distracted from the important cerebral work of our professional crafts. Instead, we can spend hours chasing down every link sent us via Facebook, filling out paperwork, responding to phone calls or what have you, rather than problem solving. One technique is to carve out, say, 2 hours 3 times per week with no phone calls, no emails, etc., and focus on a question you’ve identified ahead of time as important. Your mind may wander–mine definitely does when I try to do this while running–but you try to keep returning it to the task at hand.

For many of us these days, one important task for this time is coming up with new ideas: new columns, new marketing techniques, new messages, new products. For a future project, I’m hoping to find out from people exactly how they come up with these ideas. Lots of people say “they just pop into my head,” but what kind of ground work do you do? Are you focusing on the question, or on something else? Do you need to tune out distractions as you would during the “strategic thinking time?” How do you recognize that the idea is a good one? Any insights are appreciated!