Thinking Time

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Jason’s Random Words

A few weeks ago, I sent Jeff a photo of a woodshed that I was building on the back side of my garage. I captioned the photo “thinking time,” which has become something of a running inside joke I have with Jeff.

It goes something along the lines of how I can somehow have the time to build a shed in the middle of the week, and how he (like most of you, probably) can barely find the time to tie his shoes, between his actual day job, side gig work for The Motley Fool (if you decide to check things out over there, please use our link), and all of the usual parental/spousal responsibilities. Much less the litany of stuff I send him photos of me doing. Building woodsheds. Tables. Beds. Shelves. Cutting and splitting wood. Working on or in the garden.

Usually he will have texted me, and it will have taken longer than usual for me to reply. And typically when I do, it’s with a photo of whatever my “thinking time” was that particular day.

I try to spend at least an hour every day on something that’s either somewhat unstructured and repetitive (splitting wood or pulling weeds) or that requires me to think about something that is distinctly not investing related. It’s a habit that I have had for well over a decade, and one that I think has helped me grow and succeed.

How so, you may wonder? After all, it’s said that mastery of any discipline requires focus and a lot of work doing that thing, right? Sure. I’m not a scientist or a psychologist, but I know that our brains also need time to work subconsciously on things. And I’m guessing that there is evidence that supports, or at least suggests, that our brains work better for most humans when we don’t operate in fully structured environments all of the time.

Hence my thinking time. By intentionally creating time where I can focus on something else (measure twice, cut once; think too much about strike prices for your weekly options while measuring, cut twice), or do a task that doesn’t require too much focus, I find myself far more productive when I come back to my work. I tend to have more clarity,

Here’s the kicker. Since my work is almost entirely related to investing, I find that those hours where I’m not actually thinking about investing, may be my most important thinking time when it comes to my work as an investor. Brains are weird. But it works for me. I realize that maybe I’m weird (true) but I am probably not unique in this regard.

What about you? When is your “thinking time” as an investor — when you give your brain the room to process your investing thoughts without your conscious mind getting in the way? Jeff, for example, runs (slowly). I’d love to hear more thoughts from our readers and podcast listeners on this topic.

Jason

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