If You Want Better Problem-solving Skills, You Need To Think In Grey
The best solutions are often found in the grey, not the black and white.
Do you ever feel like there’s only one answer to your issues? Or that each situation will probably have just one possible result?
Do you find yourself constantly searching for the perfect answer or worrying that things might go wrong?
Some people are better at thinking and coming up with solutions than others.
They’re constantly coming up with incredible solutions and examining things from various perspectives.
These individuals excel at thinking, especially when it comes to thinking in grey.
Life isn’t just about black-and-white decisions; it’s about the many shades of grey in between.
What is grey thinking?
It is when you have a nuanced and balanced perspective on how you think and approach problems.
It is when you consider multiple perspectives and acknowledge that things might be more complex, with varied shades of grey rather than simply black or white.
Our thinking affects our problem-solving abilities, so we must cultivate grey thinking to 10x our problem-solving.
How Different Types Of Thinking Affect Problem-solving
1. Negative self-talk
How often have you encountered a problem with your computer, and your first thought was, “I’m terrible with computers; I’ll never figure this out, urgh!”
This negative self-talk leads to anxiety and frustration.
You’re so focused on the immediate problem and perceived incompetence that you forget the many times you’ve successfully solved your problems.
Negative inner dialogue focuses more on the problem and the negative feelings limiting how you view things.
Grey thinking lessens the tendency to overly focus on a negative or positive aspect of a problem.
This type of thinking considers all factors of a problem/situation, making it easier to develop multiple solutions.
It encourages you to question whether your perspective is balanced and nuanced.
2. Catastrophic thinking
We’ve all had instances where our brains have imagined the worst possible outcome, especially in unfamiliar/new situations.
Many times, people worry about things that might never happen.
Due to evolution, our brains have developed the ability to notice potential threats to ensure our safety.
The downside is that when you constantly perceive everything as a threat, you must be more focused on protecting yourself from the scary thing, which might not be that scary or dangerous.
It might even be non-existent. This blocks you from considering other options, thus greatly diminishing your problem-solving skills.
You might make rash decisions to avoid worrying and feeling overwhelmed. You’d avoid the problem/situation altogether.
On the other hand, instead of catastrophizing,
“If I tell my partner how I feel, they will leave me”, you can change your thinking to:
“Sharing how I feel is tough, but no matter the outcome, I can handle it”.
Such a thought displays a more balanced perspective.
It focuses the mind on acknowledging the difficulty of the situation and the ability to cope regardless of the outcome, pausing to consider the problem as having different shades of grey.
3. Black and White Thinking
The information you consume daily subtly influences black-and-white thinking.
When data is overly simplified or polarised, the middle ground tends to be cast aside, especially when it evokes an emotional reaction from the reader.
We need to remember most issues are more complex and multi-faceted than they seem.
Online communities constantly bombard us with extreme viewpoints, and we end up feeling like we need to pick a side, that it’s either or.
The opposite is thinking in grey, which encourages being open to alternatives.
It acknowledges there are varied layers and nuances to every situation/problem.
What you see might not be the whole picture.
Thinking in shades of grey doesn’t make things blurry; it helps us see the full picture.
Thinking in grey introduces the middle ground, making you a better problem solver.
How to Start Thinking in Grey
Here are the 3 most straightforward steps to help you start thinking in grey and improve your problem-solving skills.
- In internal dialogues, replace words such as ‘always’ and ‘never’ with ‘sometimes’ or ‘in certain situations’.This encourages you to be more open and considerate of multiple possibilities and perspectives.
- Make your routine flexible. For example, you can forgo setting your alarm on one weekend and wake up at whatever time. This helps accept various outcomes instead of focusing on “should haves” when your schedule doesn’t go as planned.
- Set up a time for random daily prompts to disrupt habitual patterns. This helps you pause and consider different perspectives and possibilities.
Final Thoughts
Thinking in grey helped me reduce my cognitive load and feeling overwhelmed.
By focusing on breaking down my problems and solving them 1% every day, I started seeing things in different shades of grey rather than in black or white.
In life, problems never end; as Theodore Rubin said,
“The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem”.
One way to prepare for and feel at ease with problems is to improve our thinking by embracing thinking in greys.
Try it for a more effective problem-solving approach and improved mental health.
