A simple brain hack for tough problems

Two tough problems this week reminded me of a simple brain hack that I sometimes recommend to my clients:

When the solution is elusive, take a step back and make sure you understand the problem by writing it down.

1. Chemistry homework

Helping my high-school daughter with a tough chemistry problem, I spent half an hour struggling to explain the method that I thought would work, until I finally realized that I wasn't super-clear about what I was trying to find.

Finally I took 2 minutes to write the question on paper, as a grammatically correct sentence starting with a capital letter and ending with a question mark. And then the correct method became obvious.

Ten minutes later we were done with the calculation.

2. Software headache

For three days this week, I puzzled repeatedly over a tough software development challenge for a client project. Each time I came back to it, I thought I had the right approach. But I couldn't quite make everything fit together, for reasons that eluded me.

This morning I sat with pencil and paper, and I wrote out in a few simple sentences and a couple of very simple diagrams what I actually wanted to achieve.

One hour of genuinely productive work later, it's done.

Here's the thing:

I've seen this approach work time and time again.

Put down your tools — your dashboards, your spreadsheets, your calculator, your email, your brainstorming committee — and write, with pencil on paper, the simplest possible explanation of what you're actually trying to achieve.

Sure, when you just get it right the first time, you don’t need this — and that’s great!

But when you don't, getting back to the problem — and away from a swirling morass of possible solutions — has a genuine clarifying effect.

All the best,
A.