A while back, I bought a THINKBook, which was developed by my old friend Rajesh Setty. The problem? I got busy and forgot I had it, so I just got around to using it a few weeks ago. I am very impressed with this unassuming little notebook.
What the heck is a THINKBook?
In simple terms, a THINKBook is a hard-bound red notebook, about the size of a Moleskine notebook. But it's way more than that; sure, it has ruled paged you can use for writing, but it is more than just a general purpose notebook.. This is a thinking person's journal, for challenging your thinking.
The thinking challenges are framed by "prompters" on various topics interspersed throughout the THINKBook (see the example on the right). There are a bunch of topics relevant to both business and personal introspection, and I like them very much. Full disclosure, I didn't think I'd like them at first, but I surrendered to the process, tried a couple and found that they were very useful.
The structure of the prompter exercises in the book really pushes you to think at a fairly deep level, and definitely promotes "out of the box thinking." It feels very soothing to follow this process and begin writing journal entries in the THINKBook - this is all about crystallizing your thoughts and devoting some time for your own improvement. That's something a lot us us don't take time out to do, and I think we'd all be better off with some periodic deep thinking.
Spread the Thinking
I really like one of the suggestions from the THINKBook web site, which is to use the THINKBook as a personal and professional gift. I particularly like the thought of giving it as a business gift, and I just may try that to see how people react.
I like the framing of the "why" behind the THINKBook, according to Rajesh:
THINKBook makes it easy to pull your people’s own best advice out of them. It can be used to super-charge group brainstorming sessions or as a trusted advisor to help you improve the brilliant idea keeping you awake at 3am.
Pretty cool, don't you think?
If you could use some time working on your own creativity and mental health, I encourage you to grab a THINKBook and give the process a chance. And, if you like it why not give one as a gift to someone you like (a new one, not your old used one)?