{"id":714,"date":"2022-09-06T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T16:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/?p=714"},"modified":"2024-01-23T06:15:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T12:15:56","slug":"the-15-minute-rule-for-problem-solving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/the-15-minute-rule-for-problem-solving\/","title":{"rendered":"The 15-Minute Rule for Problem-Solving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After 15 minutes of focus, trying to figure something out (that includes experimentation, research on Google, looking at examples, etc.), try formulating a question about your problem and get it ready for a discussion board post or email.\u00a0 Don’t post or send it just yet!\u00a0 Take a little 2-minute walk, stand up and stretch, or go get a drink of water and then come back to your question.\u00a0 Did you have any ideas or places to look for an answer while you took a little “brain break?”\u00a0 I find that sometimes when I just formulate the question and walk away, I have some more ideas — maybe even a solution!<\/p>\n\n\n

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If that didn’t provide any insights, then post your question or send your email.  After it is posted\/sent, your brain is relieved that you aren’t stressing out about it, but it also continues to work on the problem subconsciously!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is proof from my own experience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Embarrassingly, I shouted, “It’s in the timer routine!  I cleared the variable at the wrong time!” during what was supposed to be a dinner date.  My date looked at me rather puzzled.  I had been working on a biathlon program that was to be used to gather statistics of the participants and produce reports.  I had been stuck on a problem and, unfortunately, the solution came to me in the middle of dinner — when I wasn’t even thinking about it!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was explaining a coding problem I was having to my mother — who knew nothing about computer programming, but was an excellent listener!  She gave me all of the appropriate good-listener queues:  eye contact, smiling, nodding, etc.  When I was finished, she asked me the most bizarre, off-the-wall question that really had nothing to do with what I had been explaining to her.  But that bizarre question broke my current direction of thought and sent me in a new direction toward the solution.  Verbalization helps, too!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set your own time limit on how much-concentrated effort you will spend on a problem before taking a “brain break” to let your subconscious mind take over for a bit and give this technique a try!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 15 minutes of focus, trying to figure something out (that includes experimentation, research on Google, looking at examples, etc.), try formulating a question about your problem and get it ready for a discussion board post or email.\u00a0 Don’t post or send it just yet!\u00a0 Take a little 2-minute walk, stand up and stretch, or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[144,112,143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.perceptivepetal.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}