your rubber ducky

In early December my husband went on a short work retreat. Spouses are always welcome, because the trip includes their team Christmas party, so I tagged along. 

On the second evening, I had a long conversation with my friend Jorge, whose wife is a colleague of my husband. We were waiting for them to finish work so we could have dinner. (It turned out they weren’t working but playing Wii bowling, which was hilarious.) 

I forget how we came around to it, but I was telling him that I journal regularly. Jorge is a computer engineer, and he was very curious about this. 

“I don’t know anyone who journals,” he said. “Tell me more about this.”

I explained that journaling (while I don’t always want to do it) helps me process anything I’m working through - in business, in parenting, in relationships. If something is bothering me, I figure out how I really feel about it by journaling. If I have a problem, I often journal about the problem and am able to come to a new understanding or a solution. 

“Ah!” he said. “Journaling is your rubber ducky!”

It was my turn to be curious. Slash confused. Say what now?

Jorge explained that when engineers face a problem, they’re often trained to take out a rubber ducky (many of them apparently often keep an actual rubber ducky in their desk) and explain the problem to the duck. 

“If you have a problem that you can’t solve, it’s usually because you don’t understand the problem well enough,” he said. “Explaining the problem out loud to the ducky helps you understand the problem better. Once you fully understand the problem, it is easy to create a solution.”

Today I invite you to address a problem in your book in this way. 

Instead of spinning in your mind about how you don’t know how to do X, Y, Z in your book, try the rubber ducky method. 

Either journal, or talk out loud to an actual rubber duck (or a stuffed animal, or your pet, or whatever). Explain out loud the problem. Then pretend that the journal or the duck has not understood the problem, so find a different way to explain it. Then try a third way of explaining it. 

Instead of pressing toward a solution, get up after explaining the problem three times. Go for a walk, take a shower, wash the dishes, go for a drive… something with repetitive motion that leaves your mind free to wander. 

Don’t listen to music or a podcast or talk on the phone. Let your mind wander, and see if it presents a solution.