The economic turbulence of the past months has taken its toll on the optimism and motivation of many business people. Facing the prospects of job losses, bankruptcy, nationalization, and other events — or even worse, having to deal with the aftermath of such events — these days many managers and employees have problems concentrating on their work and to perform normally.

How can you stay focused, do sound thinking and come up with effective new solutions in times of crisis? Here are ten non-businesslike but highly effective tips to help you think clearly when the going gets tough. Approach the coming lines with an open, curious beginner’s mind and try out those tips that resonate with you. I practice all these techniques on an alternating basis, so I know they can work creative magic.

1. Do stream-of-consciousness-writing in the morning: As the first thing in the morning, write down in longhand what’s on your mind. Your assignment is to fill three blank white pages by just letting out all your thoughts without judging them. This simple but powerful technique — popularized by author Julia Cameron in her classic book The Artist’s Way under the name ‘morning pages’ — helps you to regain focus and clarity on important objectives, task priorities and immediate challenges to deal with. Moreover, it is also an effective way to reconnect to the creator inside of you, and to create a channel for your subconscious mind to reveal powerful insights and ideas for important challenges that you currently face.

Once you’ve filled the three empty pages in the morning, take another five minutes to review your notes and to highlight any special insights and ideas gained. Then consciously plan your actions for your business day. Invest time for this exercise every morning for one month — you’ll be surprised by the ideas and clarifying insights flowing straight from your subconscious.

2. Pay attention to your first thoughts: Whenever you’re faced with an ambiguous situation or a difficult decision, pay attention to your first thought coming straight from your gut. Write down this intuitive thought, and return to it after doing some due diligence and analysis of the situation. Most probably, your first intuitive response is the right answer to your challenge at hand.

3. Focus on your breath: Stress impairs your ability to think properly and to perceive what’s really going on in an ambiguous situation. Throughout the day, whenever you feel stressed, stop your work, close your eyes and for one minute, re-energize and recalibrate yourself by taking deep breaths from your belly (not your chest). You may combine your short breathing break with the following mantra: “Breathing in I relax, breathing out I smile: What a wonderful moment.” Have you ever noticed the brief gap after you have breathed out and before you take the next breath? That’s the wonderful moment of tranquility and peaceful resting where you can truly be.

In addition, consider taking up yoga. Yoga helps you greatly to become aware of the power of breath, to loosen up your bodily tensions, and to fire up your inner energy centers (known as the seven Chakras). If done regularly, it makes your body and mind more flexible.

4. Meditate: Recent research studies demonstrated the dangerous effects that constant high stress levels can have on the human brain, causing functional lesions on the prefrontal cortex. Also known as the “brain’s CEO,” this most recently evolved part of the human brain oversees most of the more sophisticated cognitive brain functions like planning, evaluating and understanding.

Meditation is a great way to relieve stress, reconnect damaged brain cells and re-center your thinking. Even if you don’t regularly meditate, you may want to take 5–20 minutes to just sit down, close your eyes, take deep breaths through your nose, let go and just quietly observe your thoughts passing by without judgments. Meditation helps you to block out the mental chatter that constantly goes on in your mind, and to arrive at a state of restful alertness when brainwaves in different parts of your brain run in sync.

5. Indulge in your favorite idea breeder activity: Every person has special periods of time during the day or specific activities that are particularly idea-inducing. You may get your best ideas while driving your car, under the shower or in the toilet, by resting in bed, doing sports, or doing something else somewhere else, but whatever the case may be: Make sure that you dedicate some extra time each day for your favorite idea breeder activity. It’s meaningful ideas that we need most these days — but make sure that you also write down your ideas and take action on your best ones.

What are the other five tips that you can apply to improve your thinking while we’re going through an economic downturn? Come back to this column in two weeks from now to find out more.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2009. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 19 February 2009.