Did you sit and think, how much positive and productive thinking you could have done during the huge quarantine period you experienced? Or have you blindly assumed that you can’t come up with ideas like a successful person and just binged Netflix? If yes, then get up! This article is for you. One of the qualities that your career will demand is critical thinking. It will help you stand out from the general crowd. Though it is the norm yet how often do you practice it?
Oxford Defines Critical thinking as “the process of analyzing information to make a logical decision about the extent to which you believe something to be true or false.”
In simple words giving a thought to your observation, actions, communication, and experience. With a world moving quickly, we tend to forget to appreciate our beautiful minds. The following are some of how you can get that rust off your Critical thinking skills.
Thinking Time!
In your schedule of 24 hours, how many minutes do you give in to reason, analyze, and reflect your actions? Brains need to function on something other than regular. What could be better than giving in 10 minutes of thinking time every two days? Developing such a habit can help you attain a healthy brain. Increase your thinking time at a low pace. From minutes change it to hours. Take breaks from your daily routine to brainstorm once in a while. Great minds like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates didn’t come up with brilliant ideas immediately.
Counter Thought
We often assume the problems to have a limited number of solutions. Think of it as an application question. There is no definite answer as every individual has a different thought process. The smartest kid in your class answers the questions before you, don’t give up. Assuming there will be no more ways of answering the is the worst approach and must be avoided.
Question Everything!
Conclusions or opinions drawn without complete knowledge is useless. Become a detective to investigate and understand your observations. One must question as much as possible. Know the 5Ws (What, where, when, why, and who) and 1H. Question the assumptions. How do you get electricity, where is the water you drink treated, why do we pay taxes, etc. Just the way Einstein questioned and discovered gravity. Your curiosity can skyrocket your career in unexpected ways.
Mental process.
Our brain is designed to comprehend and reason every little idea, reflexes, gestures, etc. it comes across. While this is a is helpful quality, it comes with its disadvantage; overthinking. Being mindful will help tackle this disadvantage. Training your mind to differentiate more important information from less will separate critical thinking from regular thinking.
Analysis and logic
Talking about simple reasoning isn’t enough. Every situation requires analysis and logical reasoning. Making a list of pros and cons of decisions, understanding the risk and reward ratio builds hypothetico-deductive (logical cognition) this is an advantage in the long run.
Write (Mind Map)
That was a lot of thinking. But that isn’t the end of the process. With the thought “I will write later” we lose a lot of striking ideas that could be our chance of standing out. That doesn’t seem fair. Right? So, what shall be done? Simple! Write them down immediately. Make it a habit to notes ideas. Once you note them take that Thinking time and create a mind map. A mind map helps sort the good ideas from not so good. Start from simple things like cleaning your house.
The core idea is to clean the house. Then write down what each room requires and how.
Give that brain some exercise!
Just like our body is mind needs exercise. A game of chess or solving sudoku in the newspaper is a good start. Reading subjective material and deep-diving into the matter before deriving conclusions helps the brain stay active.
Now since you have learned your above techniques let’s understand why we need critical thinking.
Critical thinking helps in self-reflection. When thought time is given to problems, simple and satisfying solution come out of the process. You learn to be alert to important information and be more creative than your peers and colleagues. It prevents the mind from overthinking, as a result, reducing chronic stress. Critical thinking helps you solve challenges and make them exciting for you.
Conclusion
Critical thinking inserts mindfulness into ones’ quality list. It makes life simple yet exhilarating. There are several techniques to introduce and enhance it. As long as you are not lazy from your mind.
Also Read:
