top of page
Search

189 | HOW TO STOP WASTING TIME ON UNCLEAR THINKING

  • 10 hours ago
  • 6 min read

This episode is sponsored by GBM Casting

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool. Richard Feynman

Last week I talked about the brutal truth about time - inspired by Oliver Burkeman's book Four Thousand Weeks. The central idea was this: you have finite time, you will never get on top of everything, and that's not a failure - it's reality. The game isn't to clear the list. It's to make sure the right things are on it.


Today I want to talk about one of the main ways we waste that finite time - unclear thinking that feels finished.


Creative people don't usually struggle with effort. We work hard. We care. We put in the hours. The problem is that a lot of that effort gets burned on thinking that hasn't been properly examined. Goals that are vague. Assumptions that go unchallenged. Feedback that contradicts itself. Absolutes that shut down possibility. Decisions that drift instead of being chosen.


The result is wasted time, energy, and momentum. Projects stall not because the work is too hard, but because the thinking underneath it is loose.


This episode exists to fix that.

Confidence is a feeling, not a measure of accuracy. Daniel Kahneman

THE CORE IDEA


Clarity is a productivity tool.


When thinking is loose, work multiplies. When thinking is precise, work contracts.

Socrates had a method for this, and it wasn't about debate or intellect. It was about interrupting thinking at the moment it starts leaking time. He asked questions - simple, direct questions - that forced people to examine what they actually meant, what they were assuming, and what the consequences of their thinking would be.


That's what I'm going to give you today. Five questions that correspond to five predictable failures in creative work. These aren't separate techniques. They're responses to specific kinds of confusion. You'll reuse them because creative work is iterative. New drafts introduce new assumptions. New feedback introduces new vagueness. Repetition here isn't failure. It's maintenance.


QUESTION ONE: WHEN LANGUAGE IS VAGUE


Ask for a definition. What do you mean by that?


Vague notes create endless revisions. Definitions turn opinions into tasks.


Imagine a screenwriter gets notes that say "make the protagonist more relatable." Until that word gets defined - does it mean likeable? Flawed? Familiar? - every rewrite is a guess. One question forces the note-giver to be specific. That turns an opinion into a task.


Most weak ideas don't fail under criticism. They fail when forced to become specific.


Tim O'Reilly said "When you have to prove the value of your ideas by persuading other people to pay for them, it clears out an awful lot of woolly thinking." The same principle applies here. When you have to define what you mean, woolly thinking collapses.


QUESTION TWO: WHEN ASSUMPTIONS BLOCK PROGRESS


Question the assumption. What are we assuming is true here?


Creatives abandon ideas based on imagined audiences, industry folklore, and past rejection. This question separates fear from fact and restores agency.


Picture a photographer who won't pitch a personal project because "galleries don't want that kind of work." Says who? Based on what? One rejected submission? A comment overheard five years ago? This question forces you to examine whether the barrier is real or inherited.


If the assumption can't be backed up, it loses its power. And if it can be backed up, at least you know what you're actually dealing with.


QUESTION THREE: WHEN STANDARDS SHIFT MIDSTREAM


Test for consistency. Does that still apply if we change the situation?


Contradictory principles create impossible demands. Consistency exposes what actually matters - early.


A director says "we need to stay true to the original vision" - then also says "we need to adapt to the budget cuts." Those two principles contradict. This question forces a choice early, before the contradiction creates impossible work later.


You can't serve two opposing ideas at the same time. This question reveals which one you're actually committed to.


QUESTION FOUR: WHEN THINKING BECOMES ABSOLUTE


Use a counterexample. Is there an example where that isn't true?


Absolutes shut down momentum. One exception is often enough to reopen possibility.

A musician tells themselves "you can't make a living unless you tour constantly." One counterexample - an artist who built income through licensing, teaching, or online work - breaks the absolute. That doesn't solve the problem, but it reopens the conversation.

Absolutes feel certain, but they're often just fear dressed up as fact. A single counterexample is enough to prove that certainty wrong.


QUESTION FIVE: WHEN DECISIONS DRIFT INSTEAD OF BEING CHOSEN


Expose the implication. If that's true, what else must also be true?


Every creative compromise leads somewhere. This question forces you to look at the destination before committing.


An actor decides to "say yes to every audition to build momentum." If that's true, then it's also true they'll have no time to prepare properly, no filter for bad projects, and no energy left for the work that actually moves their career forward. This question shows the cost before it's paid.


Decisions have consequences. If you can see where a decision leads before you make it, you're in a better position to choose wisely.

When the next step is unclear, the best way to figure it out is to take action. Constant motion is the key to execution. Scott Belsky

WHY THESE QUESTIONS MUST BE REUSED


These questions aren't a checklist. They're a reset.


They return whenever thinking stalls, whenever certainty arrives too fast, whenever feedback goes circular, whenever effort increases without clarity.


Over time, they stop being spoken. They become instinct. That's when productivity actually improves.


WHAT THESE QUESTIONS ARE NOT


These questions are not for winning arguments, proving intelligence, or humiliating collaborators. Used that way, they fail.


Used properly, they shorten development cycles, reduce wasted rewrites, protect creative energy, and prevent confusion from becoming labour.


Socrates was credited with saying "Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people." That distinction matters here. These questions pressure ideas, not people. If someone feels attacked when you ask them to define their terms or examine their assumptions, that's usually because the idea can't hold up - not because the question was unfair.


THE TAKEAWAY


Most creative productivity problems are thinking problems in disguise.


If you can name the kind of thinking causing the stall, you've already halved the problem. These five questions exist to do exactly that.


Here's your call to action for this week. The next time a project stalls, before you add more effort, ask yourself which of these five questions applies. Is the language vague? Is there an unexamined assumption? Are the principles contradictory? Is there an absolute blocking progress? Does this decision lead somewhere you actually want to go?


One clear question can save you weeks of wasted work.


Thanks for listening once again to Film Pro Productivity. I am so grateful for your time and your energy and for those of you who continue to share and recommend these episodes to new listeners. That action, the time that you take to share, means a great deal to me and I am very grateful for it.


In next week's show I'll be talking about AI, ChatGPT, the good, the bad, and why complaining about it is a waste of time now that the cat is out of the bag. That's the final episode of season 15, and if you've been wondering how AI fits into creative work, or whether it's something you should be engaging with or avoiding, then tune in next week to find out more.

I'll end today with a final quote from Peter Drucker who said "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

Now, take control of your own destiny. Keep on shootin' and join me next time on FILM PRO PRODUCTIVITY!

unclear thinking productivity

  • The music you are listening to right now is Adventures by A Himitsu.

  • You can read the full transcript for this episode only at the official website filmproproductivity.com where you can also get in touch if you have any questions.

  • Please join me on Facebook at the official page filmproproductivity.

  • And continue to support the show by subscribing, sharing and leaving an awesome review.


This episode is sponsored by GBM Casting who have been supplying SAs to the screen and media industry throughout Scotland for over 20 years. We know our people and we know when they’ll fit for you.



 

Join the Mailing List!

Occasional updates about this podcast.

© 2018 Carter Ferguson - Film Pro Productivity

bottom of page