In the car, where I can’t possibly write anything down. Or when I’m trying to sleep, thus defeating whole “sleeping” thing.
In the shower. Taking a walk makes me feel better if I’m stressed, but only if I don’t think while I’m doing it.
If I need a solution to a problem I usually find it while I’m doing some boring everyday task, and the shower seems to work pretty well. I can’t even count the times I’ve solved a work problem in there.
Good grief but I can’t think at work. I’m too busy just trying to stay afloat.
My best thinking seems to happen in the back of my mind when I’m not paying attention frequently resulting in answers that just pop up as if from thin air. Sometimes they come in dreams but interpreting them is a bit trickier.
A couple of seasons ago on Mad Men, Don Draper is talking with Peggy, giving her advice on how to resolve a problem she was struggling with. He told her (paraphrasing) “Peggy, just identify what the problem is, and then forget about it. The answer will come to you.”
I loved that scene because that’s just how it works with me. If I try to think of a solution to a problem I’m puzzling over, either a work issue or a “real life” issue, I’ll get so wrapped up in trying to resolve it that it will never happen. But if I just put the issue aside mentally, I know that the answer will just pop into my head.
And more often than not, it pops into my head in the morning, immediately after I’ve woken up and I’m laying there surfacing out my sleep haze. Suddenly I’ll see the answer clearly, and I get up and set to task with the resolution.
Wherever there’s large amounts of water. In a bath, the shower, sitting with my feet in a creek, swimming in a pool, lake, river, etc.
I’ve been known to go and hop into the shower whenever I have a problem to wok out.
Driving.
My best thinking is done while dancing. I love to dance: I may not be very good at it, but I enjoy it. I can exercise and just let my mind go where it wants to.
Under the morning shower, at 4.45 AM. The half-comatose state from sleep seems to connect some forgotten neurons together, giving birth to some original ideas.
Wow - All these years I thought I was weird for solving problems in the shower!!!
While driving. I need to keep Dragon Dictate running on my iTouch instead of using it for playing music.
Shower as well. This should be a poll.
The moment I wake up. I’ll often wake up with a song or a theme for the day. I am also the happiest first thing in the morning. As for critical thinking it’s in the shower.