2020-05-03 This 3-Minute Exercis

Anyone can improve their structured thinking with practice. The best thing to do is ask yourself pointless questions, ones you can’t easily find the answers to online. Writer Hannah Yang shares a prompt that should take you about three minutes to figure out: How many customers visit your favorite restaurant every year? Here, I’ll give it a shot.

I started with big numbers and moved into smaller ones, but you could also do the opposite. Starting on either end works.

Structured thinking isn’t just smart — it’s innovative. The word “structure” makes it sound like you’re removing the creativity from your thinking process. Actually, the opposite is true. Creativity thrives on rules. Within boundaries, your thoughts can roam freely and build on top of one another.

With structured thinking, you can become an innovative problem-solver, which you can benefit from throughout your life. After all, as Tyson put it: “When you know how to think, it empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.”