"You need a thinking queue!" - Futurist Jim Carroll
Now that I've finished my Megatrends series, I can move on to the other ideas that are on my list.
Let's start here. One of the most popular blogs, and one of the longest running, is Seth's Blog.
Running for a long time, he's an iconoclast who offers up thoughts on everything from leadership to culture to knowledge to teamwork to creativity and marketing. With millions of followers, he's the original 'original thinker.' (In fairness, both he and I started around the same time in 2002!)
And for a long time, the image on his site was just an upper picture of his head - his mind, his thinking machine, his creative engine. Or, we might think, his thinking queue.
A thinking queue? That's the phrase recently shared with me by a good friend over in Australia. She had asked me a science and career-related question regarding one of the posts I had just written in my Megatrends series. I promised to get back to her with a detailed response, probably once I got through writing the series. (And I will now probably get around to it Monday or Tuesday next week.)
In my response, I noted that I had an entire list of ideas and issues and topics and stories, and inspirations I'm always thinking about for my blog - this Daily Inspiration series, which you follow - and that I would add it to the list. That way, I could ponder the issue in my mind over time while I'm busy with other things, along with all the other thoughts and ideas, and issues I'm thinking about.
She responded, "I think it's great you've got a thinking queue!".
And with that, the very idea and importance and concept of a 'thinking queue' became another item in my 'thinking queue!' In my queue, I've got a whole list of trends, news reports, daily inspiration ideas, innovation thoughts, client stories, and so much more floating around up there. I'm always, somehow or other, thinking about all these things at one moment or another. It's a pretty busy queue! In that way, my queue is my way of managing the space I live within.
Here's the thing - all of us should have a thinking queue. We are in a world in which we can drown in all the new ideas, knowledge, discoveries, and insight that surrounds us - there is so much going on! The result is that many people feel completely overwhelmed by the scope and pace of change - there's just too much of it! Rather than chasing new stuff, we shy away from it!
But what if you place some of it into your own personal 'thinking queue'? What if you took an approach that, rather than letting some new information tidbit overwhelm you, you simply add it to your small personal list of things to explore later? Instead of letting some quirky new idea you saw on social media scare the hell out of you, why not save it for later to learn about? What if some interesting item in a publication causes you to go 'whoah' - and rather than forgetting about it, why not tee it up to explore in an AI at some point in the future?
A thinking queue just might be your most powerful tool in your toolbox in a world in which change is overwhelming, because it lets you manage the change! That way, you are turning your feeling of being overwhelmed into a feeling of knowledge empowerment.
In the fast-moving 'information age,' that's power!
Get your thinking queue happening, folks!
It's one way of dealing with a world that is moving way too fast!
A thinking queue? Perhaps this is why Jim Carroll's wife accuses him of absent-mindedness!