As a business coach, I'm fascinated by how we humans think.  I've had opportunity to observe not only my own thoughts, but also those that my clients choose to share with me, and I'm always struck by the powerful influence of our thoughts on the results we obtain.

As they say: "Your thoughts create your feelings and your feelings create your actions"!

When I discover a "thinking wonk" like Ed Boyden at MIT who leads the Neuroengineering and Neuromedia Group (can you imagine such a title?), I'm excited to learn what it is that science is revealing about how we think.

It's even more helpful to encounter a practical and applicable article such as appeared in his blog last week. Titled "How to Think: Managing Brain Resources in an Age of Complexity", the article offers 10 rules for clear thinking, with suggestions for implementation.

Here they are (I suggest you click on the article link above to read more about the implementation details):

1. Synthesize new ideas constantly.

2. Learn how to learn (rapidly).

3. Work backward from your goal or else you may never get there.

4. Always have a long-term plan.

5. Make contingency maps.

6. Collaborate.

7. Make your mistakes quickly.

8. As you develop skills, write up best-practices protocols.

9. Document everything obsessively.

10. Keep it simple.

While these may sound like common sense, as well they are, they bear paying attention to, as reminders of how to produce better outcomes as physicians in business.