Why do you produce so much before you know what you’re trying to say?
What would happen if you gave the idea more time than the output?
I’ve been working with some very smart people lately on their GDC conference talks for March. Many arrive with dense, highly produced slide decks—and no clear message.
When a deck looks like progress, we outsource meaning-making to the audience.
Slash and Burn
“Cut away the first 10 slides; they’re not saying anything.” This is literal, but also a metaphor. Your first 10 slides, like the first draft of anything, are usually trash can material. More and more I see professionals racing through the process of expression to tick a box. This costs us not only clarity, but also original thought.
I remember my university writing instructor Dr. Guy Guidici slashing my essays with his red pen—obliterating the first 30% of the document. “Here’s where it gets interesting,” he would say. And he was right, it takes time to get to something original. As they say in the graphic design trade: kill your darlings.
In Defense of Creative Thinking Time
But today, time to mull over an idea feels like a luxury: KPIs pump adrenaline into our calendars, making “thinking time” a fluffy nice-to-have. Be honest, would you feel a little “soft” if you calendared something like “GDC Presentation: Think Through Potential Key Messages”? This means no computer, no writing, but literally just you and your brain working through some directions, maybe on a walk in nature?
Creative time is rarely prioritized, and that’s why people land in my Zoom room with a jumble of unclear content they are presenting to a live audience in two weeks. This is what “output-first” looks like in the wild: a finished artifact without a finished thought.
Image of Segovia, Spain Cathedral courtesy of Felix Lipov and Vecteezy
Cathedral or Cage?
Something happens when we open our laptops: our focus narrows. Which is why I always recommend working on a big sheet of butcher paper on a wall before you ever limit yourself to a keyboard. Draw some pictures, connect ideas with big circles, cross ideas out, scribble. Words serve as an approximation of ideas. Don’t invite the cops before the party even gets started.
This is sometimes called the Cathedral Effect, and it is one of the reasons I prefer to work in environments where the ceilings are high. There’s evidence that higher ceilings can prime a mindset associated with freedom, broader thinking, and abstraction. Jumping on your laptop before your ideas are clear is akin to working in a cage: it can put a lid on your creativity.
My Soapbox
Before you communicate, give yourself some shower time.
Prioritize the invisible creative work of thinking.
If you’re working on something important—especially something you’ll have to explain to other people—try this:
Don’t start with the deck.
Start with the question you want to answer.
Give yourself time to walk, pace, stare out a window, punch holes in your arguments.
See which ideas survive a few days of chewing on them.
If your key message is clear, you should be able to find a story to illustrate it.
That’s a good litmus test.
Then—and only then—open the laptop.
Because when the thinking is clear, the output gets easier.
And when it isn’t, no amount of productivity will save you.
P.S. If this resonated, I share more reflections—and practical tools—on communicating with presence, clarity, and service. Subscribe to have them delivered to your inbox.
THE BIG PRINT
Most clarity problems are thinking problems, not execution problems.
TAKE IT FROM… Steve Jobs, American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc.
Jobs was famous for long walks, whiteboard sessions, and extended periods of thinking before committing to products or messaging. Former colleagues often noted how much time Apple spent clarifying the idea before building anything.
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