OK, this is going to come across really crude but....surely some of the best "thinking time" has to be sitting on the toilet. When else do you get 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to yourself (...I like to take it slowly)? Nobody is going to bother you while you are taking care of your business! There's a particular bathroom near main reception that - surprisingly - is seldom used and is perfect for getting away from the desk to think about why my fact load keeps failing or to think about a SQL 2008 R2 upgrade (or lots of other stuff). However, it's pretty sad when I have to "hide" in the bathroom to get some quality thinking time. Unfortunately, when I try to "think" at my desk I invariably get asked one/all of these questions:

1) Are you asleep?

2) What are you working on?

3) You don't look too busy, can you help me with something?

ARRGGGH!!! 🙂