With all due respect to Fleetwood Mac, many people “can’t stop thinking about tomorrow” because they never begin in the first place.
Bill Gates’ solution to this problem is to dedicate one week a year to thinking about the future. He calls this week, quite unoriginally I might add, “Think Week.”
Now, I can almost hear many of you gasping, “Where the hell am I going to find the time to dedicate a whole week to thinking? I barely have a spare minute!”
Bullshit!
Do you really mean to tell me that you and your organization—which are presumably going to spend the remainder of your tomorrow’s in the future—can’t dedicate a measly two percent of your time each year toward thinking about the future?
If a dedicated week is too much to ask, perhaps you could commit an hour each week to the task. (Fifty-two hours in a year comes close to a full workweek for many of us.)
If an hour a week is too taxing you could break the task down into smaller chunks and dedicate 12 minutes.
And, if you can’t find even 12 minutes a day, well then, I seriously question your ability to manage your time and, more importantly, lead an organization.
P.S. If you really don’t think you can afford to spend one week a year toward thinking about the future, try asking yourself a new question: Can you afford not to think about the future?
P.P.S. Here are some great resources to help start thinking about the future:
If you have just 12 minutes a day, subscribe to MIT’s Technology Review or KurzweilAI.net. Both come out daily and can be easily digested in a couple of minutes.
If you have an hour a week, read the Economist (especially it’s Technology Quarterly Review). Springwise is another wonderful resources that will spur you to think about the future.
Lastly, if you do have a full week, here is a great list of books to help get you started thinking the future.
