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How to Think

Writer: Anne Winn
Anne Winn
Jul 14, 2022
4 min read

Updated: Sep 22


/ An overhead flat lay of expedition gear on weathered wood: a canvas pack, a field notebook, boots, a jacket, a pocket knife, a camera, and a map. There's more in the frame than that, but alt text can't be an inventory, and the gist is what a screen reader user needs. I've left the brand names out deliberately; they're incidental and naming them would just eat the character budget. Worth noting the image is doing something cleverer than it looks. A flat lay is entirely about getting ready, not about going. Everything laid out, nothing used yet. That's the seductive part of strategy and precisely the part your essay says isn't where the difficulty lives. It pairs with the flat title the same way the goldfish crop pairs with the bowl. Should I be putting the category here and including an exerpt for thiese? Category: yes, here. The Categories tab is showing 0. Add Essays there. It does nothing for you today since the feed is hidden and your list is hand-built, but it's ten seconds now and a tedious backfill across six posts later if you ever want the taxonomy. One thing to know: assigning a category makes Wix generate a category page at its own URL. Treat it like the feed page. Keep it out of the menu, and if you're being thorough, noindex it in the same SEO Basics panel. Excerpt: skip it. It exists to feed a blog list display, and yours is hidden. Your Insights page uses your own framing lines rather than excerpts, which was the whole reason we didn't use a feed widget. And you're setting SEO descriptions explicitly, so the excerpt has nothing left to do. If you want it belt and braces, paste the SEO description into the excerpt field rather than writing anything new. That's a copy-paste per post and it guarantees that wherever Wix decides to reach for an excerpt, it gets the line you approved. But empty is genuinely fine. Publish date reading 09/20/2023 is correct. That field working is the thing that makes the archive argument hold. Alright... How to Think Publish date — July 14, 2022 Category — Essays Slug — how-to-think SEO title — How to Think | Essays by Anne Winn SEO description — Thinking is a practice, not a trait. Methods for widening how you think, and why expanded perspective compounds into better ideas. This is the one with something to strip. The last line of the body is "Image credit: Photo by Juan Rumimpunu on Unsplash." Delete it. The credit belongs in your footer now, and the essay should end on "Good ideas are catching. The inspiration that comes from methodically making them better is downright contagious," which is a much better last line than a photo credit. And this one's footer says Unsplash, not Pexels, assuming you're using the original image: annewinn.com blog | Originally posted on July 14, 2022 | Photo by Juan Rumimpunu on Unsplash If you swapped the image, use whatever the new source is. One deliberate inconsistency in the SEO title, since you'll spot it: the other five read "| Anne Winn" and this one reads "| Essays by Anne Winn." "How to Think" is generic enough on its own to look like content farm output in a search result. The extra two words tell a stranger it's an essay by a person. Search titles are never seen side by side, so the pattern break costs nothing. Here's the image. Nothing came through. Try again? A monkey sitting on a mossy rock in a green forest, one hand raised to its chin, looking up and away.

I was asked recently what my favorite thing is. Before I knew it, “thinking” popped out of my mouth. This response first surprised me and then didn’t. One of my values is Discovery after all.

The act of thinking has always interested me- how I think, how others think, how groups think- all of it. I experiment and invest a lot of learning time in different ways of thinking and mindset development. I have practices that cultivate a curious, explorer’s mind, and I don’t allow myself to spend too much time wallowing in an obstacle or setback. I know that if I can just think differently and see differently, the ah-ha (the opportunity) will present itself.

When I was a little girl, I needed to understand how things worked. At maybe 18 months old, I sat on the kitchen floor and disassembled all of my matchbox cars. I just had to know. Unfortunately, my dad came home from work and slipped on the wheels scattered on naked axles-not the most positive ending. But it does illustrate how I still work a problem. When faced with a challenge, deconstruction is the fastest way to see the source of the issue. If you don’t know how things are working how can you possibly design something better?

I am fascinated not only by the outcomes of toying with constructs, problems, and ideas, but the thought process we utilize when doing so. Once- instead of sleeping, I painted a 7′ question mark on my bedroom wall. My mind was busy and I found the exercise and the image meditative. I gave myself permission to forget the box and let go of outcomes, to sit with the chaos in my own mind.

There are creative thinking methodologies, systems thinking processes, objective and subjective viewpoint strategies, logic exercises, critical and analytical thinking constructs, imagining practices, and illogical brainstorming. Sometimes you have to poke at something in 5 different ways to see it accurately, sometimes 10. Shifting perspective with objectivity can be a lot of fun if you can be disciplined enough to release the need for an immediate answer.

While I like to imagine that as a Master Generalist, I have a lot of skills, I know that what people come to me for… what people pay me for. It’s how I think. It is something I do that is unlike many others. I love seeing the same thing in different ways in my own mind. I love putting those things together to build something new.

If you are feeling stuck, maybe give this a try. Look at something one way, clear your mind, and then return to it with fresh eyes. Imagine you are someone else (pick a person or persona) and challenge yourself to see it the way they might. What are you missing? What can you not see from the lens of your own experience?

This in NO WAY replaces the diversity required for good solutions. It DOES NOT mitigate the need for perspective speaking behaviors. What it DOES do is allow you to ask good questions, to play devil’s advocate, and to see and understand the viewpoints of others with less judgment. It enables you to show up prepared to work.

This matters. It matters more now than it ever did, but it has always been important. A thing is always impossible until it isn’t. If innovation, creativity, and the catalysts that unleash these things are now name of the game (and yep, they are) start cultivating this in yourself now. Do you want to lead? Get really good at this. It will empower you to see people in new ways. It will enable you to activate their potential.

Ideas for getting started…

  1. If you find yourself reacting strongly in a meeting or interaction, pause and ask yourself why before responding. Then, ask a question instead of making a comment. Get curious.

  2. Feeling stuck? Stop and clear your mind. Go for a walk. Do 50 jumping jacks. Move.

  3. At an impasse? Pretend you are someone else and start from the beginning. Be sure to recognize when you shift back to your way of thinking. Challenge your thought process.

  4. Read. Learn. Engage with content you disagree with. Listen. Side note… How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb is an interesting read.

  5. Meditate. No, you don’t have to sit in lotus and practice loving kindness (though I would strongly recommend giving it a shot). Maybe try walking or running meditations, even swimming, or creative time, or time in the yard. The how doesn’t matter - what matters is creating a practice of centering yourself and finding stillness. In our distracted world this is so hard. Find your peace. Don’t let emotions drive the bus, use them as valuable inputs.

The long and the short is that there are as many ways to diversify your capability in How to Think as there are people in the world. The amazing thing is that the output of expanding perspective within ourselves drives outcomes that support our ability to create belonging. Belonging and refusing the pull toward homogenized groups (and of course, psychological safety) stops group-think in its tracks. We come up with better solutions and we invest less in the emotions that get in the way of our ability to change.

If we want to create a better future, we need to build the skills now that will allow us to imagine something different. Just try. Think about how you think. Yeah- it’s a practice, it’s work. But, it is a practice that over time will transform you. It will allow your best to shine through. You become the catalyst for others.

Good ideas are catching. The inspiration that comes from methodically making them better is downright contagious.


annewinn.com blog | Originally posted on July 14, 2022 | Photo by Juan Rumimpunu on Unsplash

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