I first came across the question (thought) of, “How many thoughts do we think a day,? – about fifteen years ago. Since then I have on several occasions googled this question. The answers I came across are wild in their disparities. They range from the one you shared -attributed to NY Times article of 1,100 per day to 70,000. I come up with approx 60,000 and here’s how.

I will attempt to be succinct.

First – What constitutes a thought? I say a thought is akin to a simple sentence or a grammatical clause.

e.g. “I wake up.” A simple sentence therefore one thought.
“I wake up. I drink coffee.” Two simple sentences therefore two thoughts.
“I wake up. I drink coffee and read the news.” Two simple sentences and a clause therefore
three thoughts.

Second – How long is a thought?

I propose – one second. I am not considering what might be going on in the wild-west of the sub-conscious but only what we are aware of and the thoughts that we are aware of (according to what I contend a single thought is) take about one second each. So when I think, ‘I wake up.’ this thought takes one second or when I think, ‘I wake up. I drink coffee and read news.’ this group of three thoughts takes three seconds. And on and on it goes – one thought a second. (close enough anyway)

The rest is simple math. We are awake for 16.5 hours a day and we are always at some level thinking. 16.5 hours equals (60x60x16.5) 59,400 seconds and if a thought is one second then we think approx 60,000 thoughts a day. (drum-roll please)
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It is true that during any given moment in any given day that our awareness of self fluctuates. We are not always critically aware. But even when our consciousness is on auto-pilot: at times driving a car or cleaning house or any mundane task that doesn’t need crucial attention, even during these moments we are processing thoughts and we process these thoughts – single thought by single thought and at the rate of one a second.

And that be thoughts on, ‘how many thoughts do we think a day’.

Regards – Teddy McDermott