Think inside the box

“Think outside the box!” This has become a business mantra. It’s so abused that I wonder if the people chanting them knows what box are they talking about! Do they realise what does the box mean? How does the box relate to thinking? Hey, it’s just a box, whether you’re thinking inside it or outside it. So what’s so special about this box?

I think people have forgotten what this box represents. Nobody journeys within the box anymore. We are all just too eager to think outside the box, only to realise that we have never actually understood what the box is. We don’t take our time to understand the behaviour of the box, what is the box made of, what can the box carry… We sometimes don’t even know the size of the box!

The box is meant to define the edges of a problem. When we are trying to solve a problem, we’ll need to know exactly what problem it is that we’re trying to solve! It sounds obvious but that’s where the box comes in. Let’s say I have an email problem. Now, an “email” is actually not a problem. So you’ll have to be a bit more specific than that. So I say, I receive a lot of emails. Good. It’s more specific, but again, that’s still not a problem. Receiving a lot of emails do not qualify it to be a problem. Everybody receives emails. So what is your problem? Let’s say, I can’t cope with the daily emails I received. Now, this statement has defined the problem a bit more. It has given some edges to the box. We have the problem words “can’t cope” and we have a time dimension to the problem as well (daily). Let’s face it. If time is not an issue, we don’t actually have much problems in this world…

Although “cope” may still be a bit vague, it is sufficient for it to become a problem to me. This is how the box is defined. This is only when you can think outside the box, or if you choose to, even tear up the box. Make daily emails a non-issue. For example, you can remove your email address altogether. Life as a virtual hermit does give a sense of peacefulness.

From that extreme, you can choose to delete your emails as you get them. Be as ruthless with them as possible. Report more emails to be spam if it’s the newsletters you can’t seem to unsubscribe. You can always politely unsubscribe them first. You can filter your emails to go straight to a black hole folder. For the really important stuff, you can do them first, or assign an action label to them e.g. Review, Read, Reply, Call someone etc and do them later (at some pre-defined time slot that you set aside daily).

All these thinking can only happen AFTER you’ve defined the box. It can only happen only when you see the box, or make the box visible. An email problem can be a very large box like “I can’t seem to get rid of the million of emails in my current inbox”, or “I think it’s because I procrastinate whenever an email comes to my inbox”. In this case, you’ve actually defined 2 problems – 1 about your current state of affairs, the second one is how to deal with all emails in future, as they come in.

See how important it is to define the box?

So, whenever someone ask you to think outside the box, spend a few minutes to think inside the box first. Venture into the box. Try to see the box. Define the box. Appreciate why the box exists in the first place. Search the box. Examine the box. Understand the box. The box may be bigger than you think. The material may be more flexible than you think.

Only then you can “think outside the box” (whatever that means…)

You can stretch the box. Deform the box. Make the box smaller. It’s all a matter of perception. Then, “thinking outside the box” is just a by-product of your thought process. There is actually no box.

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