// Step 1: prepare the task as a runnable:
    final Runnable runnable = new Runnable() {
      @Override
      public void run() {
        // ...
      }
    };
    // Or as a Lambda (since Java 8):
    // final Runnable runnable = () -> { ... };

    // Step 2: Run it.
    final Thread t = new Thread(runnable);
    // optional: set name, priority etc.
    t.start();


    // **** OR: *****

    final ExecutorService pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors());
    pool.execute(runnable); 
    // Tip: use pool.submit(Callable) to execute a non-void method