Thinking Versus Doing: How to Find a Balance

No matter what the task is you’re trying to accomplish, it always involves two steps: thinking about how to do it, and then actually doing it.

While almost everyone’s job requires some combination of the two, certain people lean more heavily on one step or the other. As part of the Research and Analytics team at Openview Labs, my colleagues and I spend a ton of time strategizing about how to execute a research project before we generate an ounce of output. We are Thinkers. That’s probably why we were hired to the Research and Analytics team in the first place.

Sometimes, however, excessive thinking can suck valuable time away from actually doing the task at hand. Labs MD Brian Zimmerman often reminds us of this when we’re having a long, animated discussion in the middle of the office about something totally trivial. Coming from a tech sales background, Brian is a man of action. He still sees value in our analysis, but when it comes down to it, he’d rather lean on the side of over-doing rather than over-thinking. It’s not wrong or right, it’s just how he’s wired. He’s a Doer.

Sometimes both Doers and Thinkers incorrectly label their style of thinking as “practical” or “results-oriented,” but that isn’t the case. In the proper proportion, both thinking and doing contribute to results, and if either one is out of proportion, the result is a disaster. The best combination differs by project and organization, but typically, the curve looks like my crudely hand-drawn chart to the right:

Here are two examples of an impractical balance of thinking versus doing:

Over-thinking, under-doing (the far right of the chart): Bill spends 30 minutes in the morning deciding on the most efficient order in which to brush his teeth, shower, and shave.

Solution: Just do them. They’ll take less than 30 minutes anyway.                                 

Over-doing, under-thinking (the far left of the chart): Cindy decides to take a vacation in France, so she immediately starts walking east.

Solution: Take a few minutes to strategize, then book a plane ticket and call a cab.

In Bill’s case, a lot of thinking didn’t do any good, whereas a few minutes of thinking on Cindy’s part would save her days of aimless wandering. Bill and Cindy are obviously idiots, but it isn’t always that easy to find the right balance, especially when you’ve got a team with mixed inclinations towards thinking and doing.

To better understand if your organization is over-thinking or over-doing, ask yourself these questions:

What percentage of my overall workday is spent strategizing, i.e. internal meetings, project planning, etc., versus actually producing output?

Does that amount of strategizing make sense considering how complicated the task is?

If the strategy is documented, are the documents ever used?

What would you lose if you cut your “thinking” time in half? What else would you analyze or discuss if you doubled it?

How often do you find yourself junking output that wasn’t done in the right way or wasn’t useful to the end consumer? Could more or better planning limit this?

Are there alternative ways to produce the same output? If so, why did you choose the current method?

Who’s job is it to ensure that you’re using your time effectively?

If your organization is over-thinking, you probably find yourself with a ton of unused literature and empty meetings that don’t generate actionable information. You might feel as though it’s 3 pm before you get to any actual work that needs to be done. If your organization is over-doing, you’re probably frustrated by a ton of hard work in the wrong direction, and aren’t sure who’s deciding how you’re doing things or why.

Both situations could use a bit more balance.