Productivity Hack: Doing vs. Thinking

What are you doing right now? Are you thinking, or are you doing? In other words, are you thinking about something, or are you doing it?

If you’re reading this, then you are doing. Pause and think about what you just read, now you’re thinking. See the difference? Ok, let’s get back to reading.

In this article I share some thoughts and tips from my thinking when it comes to doing vs. thinking. It’s designed to help you get productive through thinking about doing and how we get things done.

“What were you thinking?”

Have you ever heard someone say…
“What were you thinking?” or “What are you doing?”

This might be indicative that some of your doing didn’t incorporate enough thinking. In my experience, this is where more mistakes happen. Perhaps you’ve even asked yourself one of these famous questions.

When it comes to getting stuff done, I’ve found we can get into a bit of internal conflict with our doing vs thinking. The word “trying” comes into play here. Are you trying? Or are you doing it?

We can start doing without thinking at all, and other times we over think too. Overthinking slows us down when it comes to doing, especially when we don’t know enough. Sometimes we need to do a little doing, learn, stop, think, stop, and then get back to doing. That’s how I wrote this.

Getting more productive

I think that when we separate our doing and our thinking activities, we can rapidly speed up our doing. We can get more done faster because we’ve thought it through. And yet, we still need to balance not overthinking, because that prevents us from doing too. Maybe this is the epitome of the internal productivity catch 22.

Separate thinking & doing

Apply the thought of thinking vs doing to your work, a project, or something you’ve been “trying” to get done. Have you done enough thinking? Or, are you doing too much? Is your thinking is getting in the way of doing?

If you separate thinking vs doing as two different functions of work, then I’m thinking that you can get a whole lot more doing done faster.

Consciously, intentionally, switch

For me, the slow down happens when I’m trying to combine too much thinking and doing together at the same time.

It feels like this has a negative return on energy, and makes me significantly less productive. It’s quite the challenge when I have so much that I want to get done.

If I take a step back and separate my work into doing work vs. thinking about the work it can be a tremendous help.

Taking an active pause between switching also helps. I think when we’re done thinking about something (or at least we think we are) we often want to jump right to the doing. Interestingly enough, I’ve found there’s sometimes a little bit more thinking to be done.

Stop & think

When you’re doing something and feeling like nothing is getting done, this is a great time to stop and think. That’s an active intentional thing by the way. Stopping yourself to think is real work. Thinking is real work. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

Consciously switching between thinking and doing can help you manage the process. It’s a way to give yourself permission to think, and set yourself up for success when doing. Knowing the difference between whether you are thinking about something, or doing it, can be a tremendous help when it comes to getting things done.

When you’re planning your day or your work, consider noting, tagging or splitting your tasks into thinking work and doing work. This might help you get more done. It certainly helped me write this quickly.

Work backwards

Think back through some of your work… the things you’ve done. Write down what you did and note whether you thought you did enough thinking, or not. Perhaps you can discover a pattern of your own which may unlock more productivity, if you can find the balance.

Overthinking vs. doing without thinking

As an entrepreneur, I’ve suffered from both. I’ve gotten to the doing without enough thinking many times. And I’ve over thought a lot too. I think I still have more to learn about how to balance it all, what about you?

I’m curious about your take. I’m wondering if you might even know more. If you leave a comment this could be a great discussion for all to enjoy. If you’d like to share a little data, answer the question below. The results are open.

Answer this question

Are you more likely to overthink, or do without thinking?

Thanks for reading!

Image credit:
Person thinking by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay
Ape scratching head by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay