Greatness and success are attainable yet many of us simply do not live up to our full potential.
Enhancing critical thinking strategies is the key to improving the quality of work we produce.
Critical thinking plays a direct role in how creative we are in our business lives. Here are seven tips to help you develop your critical thinking strategies:
1. Don't Waste Time
Everyone is guilty of wasting time in one way or another. Maybe one fails to be productive or enjoy special occasions. We may get distracted, or allow ourselves to become frustrated about things we little control over.
This can all be avoided with the correct critical thinking strategies. Start by taking the time to plan things out each day. Give yourself small and attainable goals so when you’ve finished them you feel a sense of accomplishment.
The more you work on planning things out the easier this exercise will become. After some time you’ll realize you’re wasting less and less time.
2. Conquer a Problem Each Day
At the beginning of your day, select one issue to work through during your free time. Identify the problem.
Turn the problem into a question you must answer. By the end of the day come to some type of resolution. Each day tackle a slightly more difficult problem.
After a while you’ll realize you’re problem solving every day!
3. Develop a Higher Awareness
Develop critical thinking strategies that include the universal intellectual standards: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic and fairness.
Make it a point to focus on developing one of these intellectual skills per week for a higher awareness. All of these skills are necessary to be successful in the business world.
4. Maintain a Journal
Buy a journal and start writing! It doesn't have to be fancy, in fact I have been using single subject spiral notebooks for 15+ years. They cost about $.99 each. Rather than worrying about what it looks like, focus instead on being consistent with your weekly journal entries.
Here is a format you may want to try:
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Situation – Write about a situation that means a lot to you in an emotional way. This could be a past or present situation. Focus on one at a time.
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Response – Share exactly how you responded to the situation, specifically.
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Analyze – Dig deep down inside to give an analysis of the situation itself, after reading what you've written about the situation so far.
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Assessment – Assess your analysis of the situation using critical thinking strategies. Did you learn anything new about yourself? What would you do differently if you had it to do all over again?
5. Change Your Character
Work on one intellectual trait each month:
- humility
- courage
- empathy
- integrity
- perseverance
- faith in reason
- fairness
The best way to do this is to use critical thinking strategies and focus on developing each trait within yourself.
6. Address Your Egocentrism
Egocentrism is when you believe everyone views the world the same as yourself. You put your views above everyone else.
Critical thinking strategies address this by forcing you think about how irrational your thinking may be. Business owners must address egocentrism in order to please their clients and keep employees content.
7. View Things Differently
Every situation has a meaning behind it. How we choose to interpret a situations has an impact on how we feel, act and react.
Critical thinking strategies help us understand that any particular situation can be interpreted in many different ways. These strategies teach us to take our negative interpretations and turn them into positive ones.
When you are deciding on the best methods for your critical thinking strategies, remember that you are conducting a personal experimentation, putting your ideas to everyday tests. Your everyday experiences will help you integrate them into your life.
You must pay attention to how your behavior directly affects your business decisions. In order to be a better, more creative person in your business, it's vital you learn to develop critical thinking strategies that work best for you.
