Productivity Tips #7: 100 Questions

Here is the seventh tip in this series of productivity tips. I’ve been using this technique for about 10 years now. It’s derived from an exercise in a book by Michael Gelb called “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci”. This book is full of remarkable ideas and exercises. In the book, Gelb sets out the 7 different modes of thinking developed by da Vinci and describes how to apply each of them. I’ve written about the book in an earlier post.

The 100 Question exercise is a fantastic exercise to focus in on the deeper issues which are bothering us at the moment.

Depending on the speed at which you type or write, allow about half an hour for this process. Without over-thinking it, and without breaking off, begin to write out 100 questions that address the things that are on your mind at the moment. Anything that comes up should be include, avoid the temptation to censor or edit as you go.

After half an hour or so, you will have a list of 100 questions that address a wide range of issues in your life. When you have finished it, put it away for now.

I have a couple of additional approaches that I now apply to this list. After a few days, I return to the list and go through batches of 10 questions each day, looking for issues that I need to address and focus in on. I am looking for actions that I can pursue, or things that I need to do in response to that question.

After 10 days of doing this, having gone through the whole list – I go through the entire list and pull out 10 key questions that are the most important for me to address. Then, over another 10 days I take a question each day, and apply the “10 minutes on…” technique from an earlier tip to it, so that I am expanding on that issue and coming up with some ideas to take forward.

This is an incredible approach to create real focus, and propel us forwards in key areas of our life. It takes effort, but the effort put in is more than rewarded by the outputs created. Please do give it a try.