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How you set about thinking can make a world of difference to what thoughts you actually end up with.

Often, hard work alone won't get you through, but thinking cleverly will. And thinking cleverly requires you to take time out just to sit and think more clearly and to think differently.

Question received opinions and traditional routes to see if they still hold water and are still the best way of doing things. They may have hidden pros or invisible cons. Hunt for the rewards that innovation can bring.

Be prepared to challenge the very premise of what's going on, to make sure that what you are trying to achieve is what you should be trying to achieve. This takes bravery, independence, deep thinking, and hard work, but that's why 98% of people don't bother to do it.

Inert intelligence, which is the knowledge of facts and figures, is not even a quarter of what you need for problem solving. You need to analyse material, generate ideas for possible solutions, and then generate a plan for putting those solutions into practice. This requires different types of thinking and it helps to be very consciously aware of what type is being used.

We have to ask "What are we trying to do?" rather than hurrying too quickly into "How can we do something?"

Making ideas work is every bit as important as having the ideas in the first place.

Actively seek out evidence or information that might contradict the received opinion or your point of view. Most people are very reluctant to do this, but failing to do so simply postpones the realisation that they were wrong.

The best ideas are sometimes rather bizarre or different. Resist the pressure to make new ideas conform to the same pattern as existing ones. The lack of belief in your original idea, or dilution of the essence that so excited you, are the enemies of success.

It is a mistake to think of one solution and then go with that. Give yourself time and put in the trouble to come up with some more ideas. Ask your trusted friends to come up with some, too. Don't stop 'till you've got a whole range of possible solutions to choose between.

Brainstorming is a good way of generating possible solutions to a problem. Scribble down ideas as they come to you on a blank pad of paper, including the crazy ones! You can always reject them later, though maybe you'll find they weren't so crazy after all. It is even better when there's more than one person. Use a big flip-chart so you can all see the possible solutions being volunteered, and this will prompt further suggestions.

When I need to sort out the priority of things, I use sticky bits of paper up on a wall so that I can change the trial order as easily and as often as I like. It has the benefit of staring you and everybody else right in the face. It sounds like such an obvious trick, but people so rarely bother to do it.

There are no right or wrong answers, you're simply looking for explanations with higher predictive and explanatory powers.

It was Charles Darwin who said, "I cannot remember a single first-formed hypothesis which has not after a time to be given up or greatly modified."

Reading good novels can develop not just your facility with language, but also an ability to employ different styles of thinking.
If you come across some aspect of reality or some evidence that contradicts what you thought was the case, don't ignore it. Find out what's going on. It's the pursuit of the truth - an explanation of how things really are, rather than how we assume they are - that distinguishes the very best thinkers.

Being intelligent has very little to do with a good memory, and a great deal to do with being able to bring different types of thinking to bear on a problem, such as: creative, lateral, logical, analytical, deductive and intuitive. The ability to manipulate a problem with these different tools will help you arrive at powerful solutions, but it takes a very conscious effort to develop such a range of thinking-styles in your armory.

Top performers regularly create things: reports, projects, plans, models of how things work, events, think-tanks, action groups, and relationships. Many people are very good at consuming information and digesting facts and ideas, but the rare and valuable exception is the person who can actually initiate something and make things happen so as to invent and bring into being an original and usable tool, idea or experience.

Athletes who take the psychological side of what they do seriously, will progress from their sport with something of great importance: skills for living a higher quality of life.

Dividing the world up into discrete subjects might be convenient, but it's counter-productive in the long run, because ideas from one sphere can turbo-charge ideas from another. What can biology learn from mathematics, what can history learn from psychology?

Almost every significant breakthrough, no matter what field of endeavour, has been brought about by a break with tradition - a cutting free from old ways of thinking. Newcomers are well placed to make such breakthroughs, particularly if they bring specialist knowledge or skills from some seemingly unrelated field.

The more you can make use of your unique strengths and experiences in solving a problem, the more likely you'll arrive at an approach that holds special and unanticipated promise.