A large part of what I do is think.

This is problematic, because I’m not the kind of person who can decide to think something insightful and impactful about a subject between 11:15 and 11:45pm, on Tuesday.

I need to throw related information at an idea, research, digest, make notes, discuss, scribble, and then think.

I can pass the research to others, sure.  Or even the production of the finished deck or document, when I’ve got the notes and an outline and a framework.  But there’s a maximum amount that thinking can be condensed.  I can’t take a 30 second conversation, and then turn it directly into a finished whatever, without taking the time to develop an idea around it.

I can work around deadlines easily.  I don’t believe that inspiration is a magic fairy that only visits when it wants to.  But I do think there’s something of a process to thinking constructively, and it does require some kind of time.  If I don’t have time, I end up with cookie-cutter work, cookie-cutter suggestions, and build something that’s a series of best-practices lashed together.  It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough, f it’s work that anyone could have done, because it lives without insight.

So, I have trouble with finding time.  And ideas stay in the drawer, because of it.