Giving your mind space to reflect is imperative to success

Modern business foster efficiency machines - remember to allow your mind to reflect

In business, especially ambitious startups, it’s incredibly easy to get into a performance-oriented way of thought. Understandably so - having a mindset where stellar performance and an insane work ethic is key, is more often than not simply the terms of survival. As Ben Horowitz writes in The hard thing, about hard things if your employees are not willing to go the extra mile to create something extraordinary, they are simply not the right fit for your business.

The symptoms of the issue

The problem arises because of how we work. More often than not, especially in the earlier parts of a business where it has not scaled up yet, we wear multiple hats. You envision the product, then you might write the code to make it work or figure out the business model. Then you need to get it “out there” and now you figure out how to best reach your target group through organic growth utilizing a few key niche subreddits with some targetted posts. In practice, you just covered an entire business in terms of roles. You had to - no one else was doing it.

In a larger business, the problem doesn’t go away, but it does change character. You are the product manager. You manage stakeholders, talk to users, you figure out the MVP for the given budget and time frame. You communicate it to the team leads, sit in on the sprint starts and ends, deliver on time and - breeeath - then you communicate it to marketing. You didn’t do all the roles, but you probably just had 20 meetings. And let’s face it, you probably have more than one value proposition or feature you’re working on, so you are doing this in parallel for 2-3 features.

What happens? The performance culture puts your brain into an insane execution modus. Everything is about executing faster, more efficient and learning from mistakes to increase your output. You already work 60 hours a week, so your time is precious and every single meeting has to be precise and to the point. No agenda? No meeting.

Your manager tells you he found a great course on optimizing communication and meeting behaviour and culture, you all watch it, you become better so now you can have more meetings in the same amount of time. The business is booming forwards and you are delivering value like nothing before.

Take a walk to make your brain hit reset

Now, I’m not saying any of the above things is bad - or well the idea of it at least. You should always strive to have efficient and enlightening meetings. Too much time is already wasted in too many meetings. But it is a general misconception that you create the most value by practising extreme execution mode every day. I do not believe it’s healthy, and I do not believe it creates the best results.

Many people have worked from home during the Covid19 pandemic, for better and worse. One of the better things is the possibility of choosing what to do, and when to do it. You should exploit this to the fullest and carry on the good habits when you go to work. Instead of jumping from one meeting to another, take time to work on your ideas. Organize your thoughts, evaluate them, reflect on them. Good ideas rarely come to fruition immediately, and I truly believe the brain needs to breathe to make them amazing. You don’t make it amazing by over analysing, mind mapping, ideating, writing user stories, rewriting user stories and so on. That’s still important, but remember to flush your brain and reflect - it’s not a waste of time to take a walk for an hour if you know why you are doing it. It is healthy for the brain to get away from your ordinary setting, and remove yourself from the noise of “business”. Having an hour where your not executing, is essential to your success and the quality of your work.

Taking a walk with purpose will make your productivity skyrocket

1. Do your normal work

Mind mapping, ideating, creating new features - it’s all important. In fact, it’s the foundation of any feature, and it’s not to be underestimated.

2. Take a break

At least once a week, go for a walk. Remove yourself from the office, and the computer. Do not bring your phone, or if you do, turn off all notifications. The point is to be uninterrupted while your brain has time to refresh and reflect. Smell the air, notice the park/neighbourhood/Where ever you are walking - take it in.

3. Have a plan with the walk

You’re not walking to “not work” - you are walking to allow your brain to work differently. By removing yourself from your normal environment, you allow it to hit reset. It will have the capacity to take in new impressions which in turn allows for new patterns of thinking. Reflection requires calmness and mental surplus, you are creating the space for that. The goal of the walk is to reflect on the idea, feature or whatever you are working on. Get intimate with it. Feel it. Is it really that good?

4. Timebox yourself

To prevent yourself from jumping down a never-ending rabbit hole, it is quite helpful to timebox the work. A good idea can be using 30 minutes to an hour reviewing your notes, then an hour for a walk for reflection and a final hour to write down your findings. One morning of efficient reflection.

5. Write down the results of renewed inspiration and a “flushed brain”

It’s important to store your new great ideas somewhere. It could be notes, user stories or whatever way you prefer. I myself prefer to keep with the loose documentation. I find that my brain is a little more relaxed and calm, and it is counter-productive to engage in efficiency mode immediately. As such I try to focus on the big headlines in my head; following the most important trail of thoughts. They will usually have resonated the most during my reflection period. I tend to draw and write the key points down on a big piece of paper, making sure to draw icons, lines, relationships and words that pop into my mind as being “important”. The idea is not to make it detailed (unless there are detailed gold nuggets in between), but rather to save the “Aha!” thoughts for later, such that my efficient brain can work the ideas to more detailed plans.

Get your thoughts and the “big picture” from your trip down on paper - it works

A little effort for big results

So what is the result of this?

Firstly; I promise you, by doing this you will see a significant increase in the quality of your work. Think about it - how often do you have an “Aha!” moment when you relax? Maybe you reflect in bed, just before you go to sleep. I personally have a notepad next to my bed because some of my best revelations in terms of solving a problem or creating new value propositions happen just before I sleep. That aha moment can be the difference between something good, and something outright amazing.

Secondly; you become more intimate with your work. This is truly invaluable because being personally invested, having reflected over and truly believing in an idea makes all the difference. It’s not just some “well-worked” feature - it’s your feature. As a comparison, you might be set to do some trivial work. It’s complicated, but it must be done. You don’t find it truly engaging or interesting, but you deliver quality and as expected. Do you really care for that work, even though it’s great?

Third; Being invested and believing in something, creates credibility. When you truly care about something, the storytelling just seems to be a little easier. It feels a little less rehearsed, and a little more from the heart. People respond to this. It’s easier to lead a team if they buy into your idea and follow you by their own means. In fact, you will have ambassadors who will follow you through hell and back. I promise you they won’t do that just because you tell them to. Remember, your work is actually not less “rehearsed” or improper prepared, it’s exactly the opposite. You gave yourself the opportunity to become intimately intertwined with the idea to the point where it’s no longer just a workload executed by a high performing brain. The holistic documentation on your big piece of paper usually works as a great conversational document when you talk to stakeholders, engineers or someone else. It’s visual, engaging and typically has the most important points. Use it.

Final thoughts

It continuously impresses me how efficient, talented and clever the people you around you are, when you are in a successful business targeting talent. The downside to creating this efficient workplace culture, is that we forget to feel and reflect over our work when we become machines of value creation. There are many ways to combat this in many parts of the value creation process, but it’s easy to forget to do it. It’s even easier to think that it’s a waste of time because you are not really “producing” anything.

But I challenge you - 3 hours a week for 4 weeks. If you don’t see radical results, then don’t do it - if you do, I would love to hear about it.