how successful people think

When you work smart, you work on the things that matter.

You work on the things that move you towards your goals.

And you can’t work smart, without dedicating time to think.

Warren Buffett is the CEO of the fourth largest company in the United States, and has arguably one of the world’s most successful business records.

By his own estimate, he has spent over 80% of his career reading, and thinking.

Warren Buffett keeps his schedule wide open.

This is absolutely counter-intuitive to what we think a successful CEO does, and especially with all the “rah rah” work harder gospel being spread around today.

Naturally, we are going to assume that Warren Buffet is an anomaly – and we’d be absolutely correct to think that.

But in the pat few years, this approach to strategy and uninterrupted thinking has gained popularity.

For example, Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, makes his executives spend four hours per week, just thinking.

Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, schedules 2 hours of uninterrupted thinking time each day.

And even Bill Gates is known to take a week off twice a year, just to reflect deeply without interruption.

And I do the same – every morning, before I turn on my phone or computer, I spent 30 minutes just drinking my cup of coffee, and thinking uninterruptedly.

From there, I meditate for 10 minutes, and then journal my thoughts.

It’s a great way to get clarity in your life – for me, it serves as a sort of ‘inventory check’ of where I’m at now, and where I’m going.

Now, aside from carving out some time to “think”, you should have some intentions going into your thinking time…

Here are a few powerful questions to ask yourself and think about:

1. Am I doing the right things with the right people?
2. What’s most important to me?
3. What am I good at?
4. What am I bad at?
5. How can I spend more time doing what I’m good at?
6. How can I spend less time doing what I’m bad at?

Alternatively, you can write down a goal, and to think about how you will strategically move toward it.

And use your constant thinking time to monitor yourself, and adjust your strategy as you move forward.

Daily thinking serves as a sort of ‘accountability check’ and reminder --- are you moving towards what’s important to you?