Analytical thinking is a specific way of thinking that helps you collect and examine information and find the best solutions to various types problems. It is useful when making simple everyday decisions as well as for solving problems in the workplace. Employers like workers with strong analytical thinking skills because they are independent, know how to collect and examine information and solve problems. What does it mean to be an analytical thinker? It means that you are able to collect information, understand it and use it to solve problems. It also means to think independently and use reason and logic in your thinking. You must never trust something just because someone said so or because we read it somewhere and to always try to do research and find out what is actually true. This also means also means to be critical of your actions and way of thinking and always look for way to improve. And being honest about your weaknesses and mistakes can be hard. You can solve most problems by using analytical thinking skills. Before you make a decision how to solve a problem, you must first gather as much information about it as possible. Then you must examine the information critically to see what is true and useful and what is not. Before you act you must think about if there will be any negative impacts from your actions and how you can avoid or minimize them. There are many problem-solving strategies you can use. Some of the most common and useful are IDEAL, the 80/20 rule and group discussion. Some problems are very big and hard to solve. For problems like this you need to be thinking “outside the box” and have a realistic goal to make them more manageable if you cannot solve them completely.