Steve Jobs had a brilliant 3-step method for solving tough problems. Now Apple is making it easier for employees to use

Apple recently promised its staff more flexible hours and more generous scheduling rules, according to CNET. Some see this decision as an effort to maintain the growing interest of employees in unionizing. While that may be up for debate, there's one fact that it isn't: the company does urge workers to follow Steve Jobs' three-step method for discovering breakthroughs and finding answers to tough questions.

By asking staff to take more breaks and work less, Apple not only helps reduce burnout, but also increases productivity and innovation. In other words, work smarter, not harder. It's something many struggle to do, but something Jobs was a master of, allowing him to find inspiration and discover breakthroughs. And anyone can use it.

Here's the Apple co-founder's three-step method for solving tough problems:

Step 1. Zoom out

Difficult problems require difficult solutions. The process of discovering a breakthrough often requires ideas that alter reality - something Steve Jobs had an incredible ability to do, according to the Harvard Business Review. While many try to zoom in on a solution, instead start by zooming out to see the big picture. This allows you to identify exactly what you are really looking for. To do this, be intentional about what you seek to discover or achieve. Get out of the realm of what is currently possible and instead think in terms of what might be possible.

For example, Jobs knew his technology was going to be great even before there was a product. So much so that when the first Apple Store opened in 2001, Jobs said its function was not to "sell computers", but to "enrich lives", according to Forbes.

Step 2. Focus on

Once you know what you are looking for, give yourself a period of intense reflection and fact-gathering. It's where you focus on what you want to accomplish and work hard at it - something Jobs was an expert at. He displayed intense and obsessive focus (or hyperfocus), and it was this ability that made him so effective at motivating employees.

Intense, obsessive focus may be the answer to discovering breakthroughs, no matter what path you take to get there. For example, Albert Einstein said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions. On the other hand, Tony Robbins stated the opposite on Twitter, saying that "Leaders spend 5% of their time on the problem and 95% of their time on the solution". Either way, each path is rooted in intense focus and the final destination remains the same.

Step 3. Log out

When you start to spin in circles and run out of process on your path to discovery, pause. To take a walk. Log out. As Steve Jobs once said, you can't connect the dots looking forward, only looking back.

Walking away from something is often when you gain clarity and creativity. So taking breaks has a much bigger benefit than just taking a break from work, but it actually leads to critical thinking, problem solving and innovation. For example, Thomas Edison would take a nap when he couldn't figure out a complex question or equation, according to