I previously wrote about the calming as well as the thought-generating properties of running. In conversation during a recent trail run, a friend of mine spoke of the obviously creativity-enhancing effects of running – which led me to think of this again. So, I want to note some updated, practical perspective on that in this post.
As a practice, running to think can be astonishingly valuable. Let’s take a look at one method that I have found useful and how to approach it before, during and afterwards.
To start, focus. During the hour or so before running, immerse yourself in the subject you are exploring or the problem you are investigating. Be single-minded and pay attention to it very closely. Whether that means slowly reading a difficult paper, taking notes while perusing a textbook or slowly, deliberately working through an intricate problem.
The point is to invest mental energy and to be very deliberate in focusing, in giving your attention to the intellectual challenge in front of you. Then, when you are either out of time or have reached a point of clearly diminishing returns (i.e. you are stuck), you stop. It is time to switch gears.
It is in fact time to get changed and head out for a run, ideally on trails, not in the street. Aim for at least forty minutes. Sometimes, much more is much better.
Once out, perhaps push yourself for a bit, if that helps you lose yourself in the activity. Be mindful, focus on your breathing – be present for this, just this. Appreciate the time out, the fresh air and the motion. Mostly though go easy. This run is not intended to be physically difficult.
After maybe the first mile or so, you have mentally disconnected from the work you left behind. You have given yourself to the run, your attention is on your breathing and the trail, the motion of your legs, the air on your skin, the noises of nature in the underbrush and the trees.
You’re relaxed, fully there, hopefully feeling content, a slight smile in the corner of your mouth or close under the surface. Now, you’re probably ready.
Conditions are set up well to get some serious thinking done. Cal Newport refers to this as productive meditation:
The goal of productive meditation is to take a period in which you’re occupied physically but not mentally — walking, jogging, driving, showering — and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem. [. . .] As in mindfulness meditation, you must continue to bring your attention back to the problem at hand when it wanders or stalls.
Cal Newport, Deep Work, page 170.
Go ahead. Now that you are out there, easily moving along the trails, your mind relaxed – and your thinking diffuse – give it a good try: Direct your thinking back to the material you were tackling before you headed out.
Perhaps you were struggling to understand a difficult research paper, working through a strategy challenge or trying to figure out the right direction for an article you are writing. Out there, running, you are very well set up to think it through.
No need to take notes, to stop and check your phone. You have everything you need. You disconnect from all of that in order to connect with yourself and your mental life. Think.
Try it and if it does not come intuitively, then experiment and practice. You will be surprised, how very productive this can be – and by the quality (and frequency) of the ideas and thoughts that you can get because of this.
Afterwards, make sure to take note of what you learned, ideally soon after you returned. You went to a different place mentally and it is easy for the thinking to fade and disappear, once you’re back home or at your desk.