During the first presidential campaign Michelle Obama was worried her husband's schedule allowed him "no time to think." You hear the same from business executives who traverse impossibly packed days.
在第一次總統(tǒng)競選過程中，米歇爾·奧巴馬擔(dān)心她丈夫日程排得太緊而導(dǎo)致“沒有時間思考”。你也會從那些日理萬機的公司高管口中聽到這種話。

But how many people budget serious thinking time on their calendar? Few. After all, what would you actually do during time set aside to just "think"? Sit in a chair, stare straight ahead, and ponder the world?
但是會有多少人在他們的日程表上預(yù)留出思考的時間呢？很少。畢竟，要是你單獨劃出一塊時間來“思考”的話，你到底具體要做些什么呢？坐在椅子上，對著眼前發(fā)呆，然后沉思宇宙人生？

Indeed, it's not a challenge you confront head-on. As Alain de Botton says, "The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralyzing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand."
事實上，這并不是你面對的一項挑戰(zhàn)。正如阿蘭·德·波頓所言：“當大腦被迫要去思考的時候，它反而會抗拒；這項任務(wù)就好比被要求講個笑話或者模仿一種口音一樣令人陷入僵局?！?/div>

If you want to do more proactive, deep thinking, you want to obliquely engage in two kinds of activities.
你要是希望作一些更積極主動、更深刻的思考，你無論如何要先開始進行以下兩類活動。

Directed Thinking Activities
定向思維活動

Write. Famed author Joan Didion says, "I don't know what I think until I try to write it down." Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos preaches the value of writing long form prose to clarify thinking. Unless you're a professional writer, writing is not always about the written output; it's about the thinking that happens as you attempt to communicate. Do not assume you have to share your writing with others for it to be time well spent.
寫作。著名作家瓊·狄迪昂說：“我不知道自己在想什么，直到我試著把它寫下來?！眮嗰R遜的CEO杰夫·貝索斯大力鼓吹通過寫長篇散文來理清思想的價值。除非你是一位職業(yè)作家，寫作的最終產(chǎn)品并不重要；重要的是當你試著去交流時所產(chǎn)生的思考。不要預(yù)設(shè)你要和別人分享你寫的東西，只要想著這段時間是過得很值得的。

Read a book. Don't read an executive summary or two-page cheat sheet. Read a full book. It's not about the content of what you're reading -- in most business books, there's not much new anyways -- it's about the quiet time you're spending by yourself. Unless you're a professional book reviewer, reading is not about reading; it's about thinking. It's about hearing yourself think.
讀書。別去讀行動綱要或是兩頁紙的備忘單，讀一本完整的書。你讀的內(nèi)容并不重要——事實上在大部分經(jīng)濟管理類書籍里，沒多少新的東西?！匾氖悄嵌文悛毺幍陌察o時光。除非你是個職業(yè)書評家，讀書并不是為了讀書本身，而是為了思考，是為了聆聽你自己的思考。

更多“忙人”指南>>>時間管理【通關(guān)班】? ?

Undirected Thinking Activities
不定向思維行動

"Undirected" thinking time involves activities that are themselves minimally mentally taxing, and conducive to creative thinking about other things.
“不定向”思考時間包括那些本身不怎么占用思維、還有益于思考其他事情的活動。

Drive to and from the office. Driving a familiar route = good thinking time. "When Joan Didion moved from California to New York, she realized that she had done much of her thinking and mental writing during the long drives endogenous to the Californian lifestyle," Steve Dodson once noted. I'm the same. I can't tell you how many decent thoughts I've concocted in my head while driving on the 101 or 280 freeways in the Bay Area.
開車往返辦公室。在熟悉的路線上開車=極佳的思考時間?！爱敪偂さ业习簭募永Ｄ醽啺岬郊~約的時候，她發(fā)現(xiàn)出于內(nèi)在的加利福尼亞生活方式，她已經(jīng)在這段長途駕駛的過程中完成了大部分的思考和精神寫作活動。”史蒂夫·多德森這么寫道。我也是一樣。我都數(shù)不清我在舊金山灣區(qū)101到280高速公路開車的時候產(chǎn)生了多少深刻的思想。

Take your dog for a walk. Same as driving, but safer.
遛狗。和開車的原理一樣，只是更安全。

Take extra long showers. You're free from distraction, you're engaged in a monotonous activity that doesn't require active focus, and you're in a different environment. Sounds like the perfect place for a creative thought.
多洗個時間很長的澡。這時你遠離干擾，做著一件不需要高度注意力的單調(diào)活動，而且在另一種環(huán)境中。聽上去是個作創(chuàng)造性思考的絕佳場所。

Stare out of airplane windows. Travel journeys of any sort are the midwives of thought. "Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships, or trains...Introspective reflections that might otherwise be liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape," says Alain de Botton. On the topic of airplane windows and thinking, I always call to mind this picture ?of Bill Clinton, having a moment.
從飛機窗口向外凝視。任何旅途都是思想的助產(chǎn)士?！皼]什么地方比移動中的飛機、輪船或者列車更適宜反思的了，那種在其他情況下容易遭遇堵塞的反思活動會在那流動的風(fēng)景中變得通暢起來。”阿蘭·德·波頓這么說。有段時間每當我想到飛機窗口和思考這兩個詞，我總是會回想起這張比爾·克林頓的照片（見題圖）。