How You Can Stick With A Tough Problem — Key Lessons From Cognitive Science

Stay with it - Photo by Jukan Tateisi

David Badre is a Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. He is also the author of On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done.

He shares some critical lessons on complex innovation and how to practise problem-solving habits. Edited for brevity, keyword added.

In general, we can get better at structuring hard problems with experience. This is one reason that practice makes us more efficient and successful at hard tasks and that experts outperform novices. Finding work habits that encourage this process helps us to stay focused.

• Stay with it. Finding the right structure often takes time. [Persist, Stamina, Effort]
• Be open to reconceptualising problem structures. [Disposition, Curiosity, Perspective]
• Take breaks. It’s not helpful to insist on trying to get everything done at once if it just isn’t working. [Pace, Time, Incubate]
• Interact with others. Just like taking a break, interacting with others can help us conceptualise a problem in new ways. [Collaborate, Share, Connect]