To decide to do something and get it done has to be one of the most difficult things to do.  

I can’t speak for you, but to me – to start with a thought and convert it into a well articulated plan is both difficult and painful. I call it thinking in a straight line – the process of having a new thought and assembling it into a form that can be disseminated and distributed well enough to generate the beginning of action.  

Converting the first thought into a plan – that is thinking in a straight line, but is it?  Are thoughts that become plans made up of straight lines?  Or do they meander back and forth?  Are they short and succinct? Or lengthy and wasteful?  It would seem that the distance between the first thought and the articulated plan can very in length and time to get there, if the goal is achieved – does it matter?  That depends on who owns the thought.

I believe that the more time is spent on focusing thoughts into well articulated plans, the shorter the distance can be – therefore the more these thoughts are a straight line.  However, I don’t want to be thought of as too stingy on this point.  Getting there is important – and having a thought that is valuable and realizing it’s potential is extraordinary.

For me it would seem that to think in straight lines, I have to protect myself from distractions.  I need to place myself in an environment where I can make notes and work through the sequence of thoughts.  I am always amazed that when I do so – how easy it can be to reach a conclusion and a way in which to share that conclusion with others.

I waste far too much time getting ready to address a problem.  Usually for me, I will think of something that has to be done and barely have enough time to write it down on a to-do list.  It stays on my list as I add other things to it.  What should be a 10-15 minute task is read more times than it may ever be worth the time to get done. It’s not until I actually isolate myself eliminate distractions and say “I am going to address this task right now… not procrastinate any longer” that I actually get some of the most basic of my tasks done.

The same is true when it comes to all thoughts.  Starting an idea and then letting yourself be distracted is not a conducive environment for creating success.  Putting off a thought that is important is probably worse than putting off a to-do item.  More than likely it will not make it onto a list and will never mature or be read a second time.  

What thoughts you would like to have realized deserve your full attention. Write them down and give them notes. Think about them in as straight a line as possible.

-d