Sitting on a cruise ship in the North Atlantic for three weeks with limited and spotty Internet led me to a different perspective about my use of the Internet and consequently my devices that get me connected.

Let me back up. Early in June, I got my Apple Watch, which I must say was great fun and, well, all consuming. Day one I barely took it off to recharge, checking my e-mail at 3 a.m., just in case something important came to me overnight. By day three I was surreptitiously checking the weather in London, following the FTSE market movements and answering e-mail at dinner. We then boarded a ship bound for Iceland. The last time I had been aboard, the Internet connection was seamless and I carried on as though I never left home. This time, however, I was disconnected for five days.

The first things I missed were e-mail, LinkedIn, Facebook and my subscription to hundreds of blogs where people I had never met complained about their family, the neighbors, their portfolio performance, last night’s theater presentation or the lack of anything to see on TV, despite their access to 1,237 channels and 10,000 movies on demand. Next, I missed my subscriptions to 14 digital newspapers, 16 magazines and, my absolute favorite app, Zite.

Finally, I missed days of news from CNN, NBC and all my other favorite online stations that kept me up-to-date on important current events, especially the minutiae. Probably more than anything, I missed the ability to Google information at a whim.

I sat down to relax and listen to music, but Pandora was unavailable, so I passed some time humming to the Texas Tech fight song, the only thing I had recorded on my iPad at the time. (Everything else was loaded in the cloud.) I needed input—and fast.

Now I’m a voracious reader, and while I had many books on my iPad, most had not been downloaded from the cloud, so I ran through what I had pretty fast. For amusement I began to listen to conversations around me, some of them pretty funny because I couldn’t hear very well and filled in any blanks with my own words.

In final desperation, with absolutely nothing else to do, I began to think. I thought about my clients, our next generation of advisors, some processes that we needed to refine and some marketing strategies. I let the ideas flow, then began to take notes. What resulted were solutions to an array of items that had needed attention for a long time, but that I really never thought I had time to attack. There was no interruption, no input but thoughts I generated. I was synthesizing and analyzing the morass of data I had collected in my head for decades. This is the essence of critical thinking.

As advisors we practice critical thinking daily—for example, how will this retirement strategy work for my new client, or what will be the impact on the portfolio if I increase the international holdings? Our critical thinking is generally deliberate. We have a problem. We define it, look at it from different perspectives and pose possible solutions.

We get paid for this thinking, but somehow don’t connect thinking about our practices or our human resources as profitable thinking. Yet how you deliver your advice is just as important as the advice you give. How you mentor and groom your staff matters greatly to you, to them and, most important, to your clients. How you think about and solve your business practice issues can immediately affect your bottom line.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from a very successful advisor. “Do you have any ideas for someone who could teach etiquette to our younger advisors?” he asked. “They are technically competent,” he added, “but a little rough cut in professionalism and office manners. I’d like to hire someone to polish them up a bit.” I was impressed. He had clearly been mentoring, monitoring and thinking about how he could provide useful material and experiences to make them better planners and better professionals.

Similarly, I spoke with another advisor a few weeks later who had been eyeing one of her staff members for a managerial position. “She’s got great instincts,” the advisor said, “but I think she needs some formal training to help her make that leap to managing others. Is there some training program that would be appropriate? What do you suggest?”

When is the last time you spent real, uninterrupted time thinking about ways to improve your staff or practice? I set aside Fridays as my “reflection day.” I didn’t set appointments, but I was wired. I did take calls, read my e-mail, followed the news, the markets, whatever else was out there to give me input. Then I finally got it. My “reflection day” should have been time available to think, not flexible time to be filled in by whatever others deemed important.

My 12-year-old grandniece once asked me what people did before we had mobile phones. While it’s pretty hard for me to remember that, I do know that the phone does not have a constitutional right to be answered. E-mail is supposed to be a tool, not an obligation. It can take hours to triage and plow through the e-mail I get. I once read an article called “E-mail Etiquette” that insisted we must respond to e-mail within 24 hours.

But why should our office tool and other people’s “emergencies” dictate our time? We allow ourselves to be digitally distracted by phone calls, e-mail, electronic information and constant input. What results is our lack of ability to control our time, thoughts and efforts. It distracts us from thinking about important issues and situations that not only need our time and attention but can actually improve our lives, our profits and our clients’ well-being.

What follows are a few critical thinking principles that may help you design your own process for thinking through your important issues. These principles are based on the efforts of Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul of the Foundation for Critical Thinking (www.criticalthinking.org). Before you begin, turn off your digital distractions (yes, even that new Apple Watch) and enjoy immersing yourself in the “eternal now.”

Identify and clarify issues. Be sure you understand what you are trying to accomplish and what you need to solve. Think of one point at a time, elaborate on it and try to connect other ideas or thoughts that you have to it.

Example: “I think we need to change our compensation structure. One of our advisors has been offered another position, and I believe that we may not be competitive in our compensation structure.”

Stick to the point. Don’t be distracted by side issues or incidental circumstances. Stay focused.

Example: “Perhaps I should investigate our current health insurance as well.” (This is not focused. This can be handled separately later.)

View your thoughts from all perspectives. Think about how your ideas are viewed by others with different perspectives and intentions. Try to be fair, non-judgmental and neutral as you examine others’ perspectives.

Example: “How will the change in comp affect partners, staff and advisors? How will this affect the firm and our ability to be competitive, yet profitable?”

Question questions. Ask the obvious, as well as the obscure. What have you failed to ask? Examine consequences and outcomes, especially from different viewpoints.

Example: “Are we actually competitive? Am I assuming there is a situation that does not exist? If we change this structure, how will it look five years from now? Are there other situations I should be addressing? What other questions should I be asking? Is my thinking actually reflecting what partners, staff and advisors are thinking, or is it more a reflection of what I would like them to think?”

Be reasonable. Are your questions and conclusions reasonable? Is your vested interest overshadowing your conclusions?

Example: “Am I more worried about what this is going to cost me or whether this is fair and equitable?”

Test your conclusions. You will want to test your thinking by having reasonable discussions with others about your thought processes and possible conclusions. As others challenge your thoughts and ideas, stay open-minded and willing to adapt as better ideas are offered.

Example: “To what extent am I open to adopting this new proposal for compensation rather than the one I had been thinking about? Am I arbitrarily holding on to my original concept because it is my own idea?”

Finally, as you think about your digital distractions, consider some new ways of taking charge of them. Choose an hour a day to dispatch those e-mails. Inform others that you will only be responding once a day and that emergency situations require a phone call. Turn off your phone at a certain hour each night and enjoy the evening with family and friends. Remember, the Internet and your devices are your tools; you are not theirs. 

Deena Katz is an associate professor in the personal financial planning department at Texas Tech University, a partner in Evensky & Katz in Coral Gables, Fla., and the author of several books on planning and practice management.