De Bono has suggested a number of useful ways of focusing thinking, including: PMI - positive, negative, interesting; APC - alternatives, possibilities, choices; CAF - consider all factors; C&S - consequence and sequel (immediate, short-, medium- and long-term); FI-FO - information in and information out; EBS - examine both sides; ADI - agreement, disagreement, irrelevance; OPV - other people's views; 4M - me-, mates-, moral-, mankind-values; HV&LV - high values, low values; AGO - aims, goals, objectives. For each of these methods, the thinking is focused on one part of the argument for a predetermined time, and is then shifted successively to the other aspects.

Decision making is a particular form of thinking that also requires a focus if it is to be effective. Again, de Bono has suggested a number of alternative ways of focusing the decision making process, including: the dice method; the easy way out method; the spell-out method; Balaam's ass method; the ideal solution method; the best home method; the 'what if?' method; the simple matrix method; the full matrix method; and the laziness method. Each of these methods uses a different way of examining the consequences of decisions that have to be made, so that it may sometimes be desirable to explore more than one of the methods.

The importance of lateral ideas to overcome obstacles in creative thinking has frequently been shown to enhance the solution of problems, or the consideration of new aspects of a problem. Lateral thinking is essentially a form of pattern switching in the way that ideas are held within the mind. One simple way of stimulating such a switch is to consider the possible ideas associated with a word chosen at random from a dictionary or a thesaurus.

Extensions of the concept of deliberate thinking are contained in the TEC and PISCO frameworks also suggested by de Bono. TEC stands for Target - Expand - Conclude, and defines successive timed stages in which the thinking is focused on the task, the possible solutions, and finally the conclusions. Ideally, the times devoted to the three stages should be in the ratio of 1:2:2, and the total time can extend from 5 minutes to 5 hours, or even days. The PISCO framework is more elaborate and stands for Purpose - Input - Solutions - Choice - Operations, and is more appropriate to thinking related to really complex situations, such as a major research project.