It’s the season of renewal. The gyms will be more packed this month. Closets will be looking more organized. The word “resolution” will be filling the air and your social media feeds. One of my favorites is the embrace of a focus word for the year to create positive change, much like a mission statement. Can that one word help change the way you think? Can you learn to think more effectively? Is all that multitasking making you think better?

Since the beginning of my career, I have been fascinated with the brain and how we learn. As an educator, understanding the brain helped me make more effective opportunities for my students, appreciating unique qualities and needs in each student. I also appreciate the power of choosing to think positively. If you start a bit of research, the subject of thinking is like falling down Alice’s rabbit hole. I’ll save you some trouble and encourage an exploratory trip on the subject with the hope that your new year begins with positive thoughts.

Be open-minded. GIS work often involves a process that requires open communication between different organizations. James Clear says, “World-class thinkers are often silo-free thinkers. They avoid looking at life through the lens of one subject.” Multiple perspectives help us think and sort through ideas and connections. Perhaps geospatial professionals have a head start.

Perspective matters. Your reality matters. We create mental models of thought as we gain life experience and expertise. An article about how to train your brain says to “consider this example from biologist Robert Sapolsky. He asks, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” Then, he provides answers from different experts.

• If you ask an evolutionary biologist, they might say, “The chicken crossed the road because they saw a potential mate on the other side.”

• If you ask a kinesiologist, they might say, “The chicken crossed the road because the muscles in the leg contracted and pulled the leg bone forward during each step.”

• If you ask a neuroscientist, they might say, “The chicken crossed the road because the neurons in the chicken’s brain fired and triggered the movement.”

Technically speaking, none of these experts are wrong. But nobody is seeing the entire picture either. Each individual mental model is just one view of reality. The challenges and situations we face in life cannot be entirely explained by one field or industry. All perspectives hold some truth. None of them contain the complete truth.” If you want to change or improve your perspective, you’ll need to allow room for other points of view and how they can connect to your experiences, even small ones.

Focus. The focus on a single concept or idea gives your brain the ability to make stronger connections. It’s what helps you find those patterns and identify important intersections in data. One way to help focus and “engage with an idea is to write about it.” Score one for all those bloggers and keepers of the post-it note collections. The more that we practice communicating and organizing what we learn, the more effective our thought process. Word of caution, in spite of our deep desire to multitask, this blog shares a collection of research that says multitasking impairs quality thinking. The old adage of one step at a time is indeed timeless and effective.

Be kind to yourself about where you’re starting this year in thought and goals. We live in a noisy world. Mats Lederhausen in his learning to think blog says,  “… in a world of distraction, inundation, and short-termism, I think it’s choosing what to think that matters more. It would benefit us all to harness the discipline and intention to focus our own thoughts on matters that give us energy and bring us joy.” I like that idea. In as much as we might want to improve thinking, a simple focus, thoughtful communication, and a kind perspective can foster our refinement.

If you need me, I’m avoiding my propensity to multitask and hoping to find a way to decide on this year’s word. At the moment, “encourage” is winning.

Barbaree Duke
Geospatial Crusader