Thinking Happens In The Margins

Whether before the world wakes up or later at night, the walk to and from work creates a kind of space that the working day rarely allows.

There’s nothing to respond to, no agenda shaping your thinking, and no expectation to be productive. Just a walk and time for the mind to wander.

That wandering matters more than we often admit. Away from meetings and messages, thoughts have room to settle. Patterns emerge, questions surface without being forced, and some of the clearest thinking happens not when we’re trying to solve a problem, but when we stop interrupting ourselves.

These quiet margins of the day rarely look important, but over time, they shape judgement. They give ideas time to breathe and remind us that thinking doesn’t always happen at a desk.

Sometimes it happens on the way there, or on the way home.

Time to think

David R. Smith