Where and When Do You Think Best?

Enlightenment? Still working on that one, mate.

Sometimes get good work-related ideas in bed. Most usually right as I'm dropping off, but occasionally in the wee hours. But my best spot is doodling at my dry erase board.

Don't you just love that feeling at the moment when a solution to a problem crystalizes in your mind? I swear if there's a drug better than that, I don't want to know about it.

2 weeks ago I had a mindblowing idea after lying down, that I could not go to sleep, and had to get up and make a document to record it, and discuss it with my partner. lost 2 hours of valuable sleep.

it may yet come true, and be worth millions to the company I work for... here's hopin' !

usually I enjoy sunday am bubble baths for meditation and thinking.. but anytime I pose questions to myself, I usually get ideas and answers.

use it or lose it... use it more, get more...

Chris

Happy New year Chris,

Enlightment arrive when I see a problem, unsolved issue or unfulfilled individual talking me. A problem must be solved. We are here for that! We cannot let survive an unsolved issue or we have to satisfy individual who ask for help. Also, when the American car industry collapsed, I made some improvements to my products followed by customer appriciations. Just yesterday, my friend called and talked about inactivity of the company he works. I have an idea and we put together a solution and sell a new product.

Edouard DeBono write about what and how to think laterally, out of the box, and tink about new and different ideas for solutions and inventions.

Wish you a good day, Gil.

In the shower.

Ditto! I solve more problems there. Think what I could accomplish if I had a bigger water heater.

Hi Slack,

You have hard time to take notes, Gil.

Usually in that twilight time between wake and sleep, or in the shower.

Those moments seem to come when the usual internal prattle in my head is quiet.

Engineers would probably find meditation very helpful in problem solving..........I've never bothered to try it.

I have found that when I get too wrapped up in a problem, the best thing to do is walk away from it and quit thinking about it.............the answer will come when least expected.

I have found that when I get too wrapped up in a problem, the best thing to do is walk away from it and quit thinking about it.............the answer will come when least expected.

I learned from my grandfather to spend the last 15 minutes of each day reviewing current progress on a problem and keep a pencil and notepad within easy reach from the bed. My most productive solutions have come between 2:00 and 5:00 am, but sometimes an answer comes for a problem that I gave up on several weeks before.

Hi another Guest,

After my opinion, we need a certain pressure to think and act efficiently. The commitment to answer or solve a problem or help someone is time related. We cannot step away of responsibilities.

Mammals, we are sloppy. We have to be pushed to perform, and time constraints are good thing for invention and innovation.

We have to do something. We have to think about it in every direction, and when something good come up, we build around the final solution. The solution is not necessarily the best. I give the chance to someone else to think about it and make another proposal. The better wins, so the pressure is on, Gil.

I'll sometimes go and sit in my special little 'thinking room' at work (it's the warmest place) There's a toilet in there too.
The only down side is I can still hear the damn phone.
Del

In the pub.

Have also been struck by the odd flying chair/bottle/beermat/glass etc. with varying degrees of consequence, but enlightenment is more rewarding .

I am sometimes enlightened while watching my kids; they often take an interesting approach to problem solving and think outside the box without ever knowing there IS a box. They've never helped me solve work related problems, but they remind me that I don't need to stick to the traditional.

Other times, I'll observe a situation and discover a solution to a totally different problem. Kind of like that TV commercial where a father is watching his kid drink a soda through a bendy straw: it dawns on the father that a similar principle could be used for sideways drilling in oil fields.

usually just about anywhere, but the most common is in my sleep.....and sometimes it wake me in the deepest of sleep.....kinda sucks....cuz, I'm off the time clock, but it sure pulled project out of a jam.

For me, enlightenment often comes during my 1+ hour commute to/from work. 90% of my commute is very light to no traffic, roads are straight and level.

In addition as others have said, just before drifting off to sleep. while sleeping, and on occasion when waking up.

My best opportunity for enlightenment (quiet time to think) is while mowing my property a couple times a month during the growing season.

Archimedes, while in the bath, exclaimed "Eureka!" after his discovery of the principle of bouyancy of large bubbles in the bath.

In my recliner - with a beer in hand!

after immersing myself in the subject for as long as i am able to ( hours -days - weeks) i break the chain of thought down with some social drug and relook at what is in question. this often allows me to see around my own mental inertia and have another viewpoint which i have to admit works for me over and over and over. waking up in the morning is another time for a light bulb to shine. being in the habit of thinking all the time both conciously and subconciously is a naturel posture for someone that is pretty much designing something all the time that i believe can stagnate unless the thought processes are brocken and allowed to reform and improve.

When the sub conscious mind is fully occupied with the problem seeking solution then enlightenment occurs. Archimedes is an example.

On the bus was really good for a while, and sometimes at work, I can work automatically and the mind goes all over the place. People are plugged in so much nowadays. Can you get enlightenment when you are listening to music?

I brought some paperwork to dairy queen recently and was staring in the distance trying to figure stuff out.

Some guy got paranoid and accused me of staring at him. He started into threatening mode. I didn't even see the idiot.

I actually get a lot of inspiration while reading CR4- probably more due to the distraction factor than any direct relationship to the issues I deal with...At least, that is my excuse for spending so much time here....

We are all reminded of the 'Kiss program' how be it true. I was fortunate to recieve the opprtunity of raiseing a foster child who could not read or write and was not dumb,but simple, and was gifted with commom sense. When approaching a problem big or small, he depended on his own enlightment and simple approach out side the box to complete the task. I caught myself in time when all else failed to solve a situation. to yell 'Chris come here', He would look at the problem and say,"lets go fishing" worked every time..

Any old place. If out of work hours and there is light, I work in my garden. Do get good ideas (and plenty of cut or pricked fingers) then. Not infrequently, just before falling asleep. bioramani

In the bath.

In fact at a previous job any time we hit a snag while assembling a huge database/software program. The company would send me home to take a bath .

wellwellwell. the bean counters for mind control enterprises will have an obvious and economical approach to get the most out of the engineering talent with one target location: replace ordinary bath with the TUB (Thought Utilization Box). bwahaha....

Once upon a time, I used to get great mileage out working in the woods with the hand axe. Nowadays.... ahhhh... I'm not tellin...

For me it is definitely a dream state. Not the enlightened day to day decisions one makes to get the coffee just right.

Every one would have had the experience of flying in a dream. Its just like that. In more ways than one. The critical thing is that one can not go to sleep and wish to fly in the upcoming dream. The other is that flying in the direction one wishes is very difficult. Letting go helps though.

It is out of our control and to find a formula or place, recipe for the light bulb to be switched on is as impossible. It comes and goes at will and no catering for it will entice this "zone" to appear on demand.

There are conducive factors, no doubt, but regulating the zone is a dream chasers down fall. Being afraid of change, even drastic change, is the enemy of progress. In our heads and in the real world. Courage is a good fuel for any light.

The other "zone" is the part were one has all the parts ordered and in the shop and the assembly begins and missing parts are identified and replaced because there is an easier way to handle that situation. The language, magic of the hand held thingo.

For me the presence of the real thing has a big influence on many factors. It's like they are talking to me, asking questions.Well, some of the time. Like you Del, when you find a piece of potential bow. It's the magic of the material that governs the procedure to turn it into the final product.

Serendipity, I trust her, Ky.

I'm still waiting for enlightenment. I think it will come when I die.

Hi Tommm,

Bon voyage! Don't forget a good book on how to think to invent and innovate to pass the time to arrive to destination, Gil.

At long red traffic lights in seasonal rush hour traffic as I am trying to enclose myself in a mental cocoon to get away from going postal on someone.

Hi Rider,

Interesting! Explain how you take notes about your conclusions at the red light. Watch, because you cannot take notes in your small computer when is green because you drive your moving car. You will get a ticket!

How you can cut off yourself, your thinking at the red passing green, and driving on green being disconnected from invention and innovative thinking?

Please, let me know! I am interested to practice your method, Gil.