I love Arthur McKinsey's description of how he approaches problem-solving. "If you think of a problem as being like a medieval walled city, then a lot of people will attack it head on, like a battering ram. They will storm the gates and try to smash through the defenses with sheer intellectual power and brillance."
Arthur took a different approach. "So I just camp outside the city. I wait. And I think. Until one day--maybe after I've turned to a completely different problem--the drawbridge comes down and the defenders say, 'We surrender.' The answer to the problem comes all at once."
That seemed to be Nehemiah's approach in Nehemiah 2:11. "I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God has put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. By night I went through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate examining the walls."
Sometimes you need to get outside the city walls to solve your problems. Battering rams ususally don't work.