Time for thinking, for reflection, for ordering our thoughts, reprioritising the ‘to do’ list, is often a casualty of the busy-ness of organisational life and its always-on, back-to-back nature. Yet time for reflection is essential to the quality of our leadership decisions and ensuing action. And it’s essential to ensure that pressure remains a useful performance stimulant rather than becoming disabling stress.
The thing is, time for reflection is too often bottom of the list, something we’ll get to when we have the time which, of course, we almost never seem to have. So, we can persist with this notion that we will be able to make time at some point in the future. Or we can start to build our habits in a different way now, checking in with ourselves by taking mindful moments.
This is literally two to three minutes of pushing back from the desk, closing our eyes (or at least softening the gaze) and focusing on the rhythm of our breath. As thoughts arise we notice them and let them drift away, retuning our attention to the breath.
These moments in a busy day can shift perspective – what looked mountainous may look more manageable. Irritants that were distracting may seem less spiky. We may find ourselves clearer sighted.
More than this we may start to see and appreciate the potential benefits of more reflection time; however we choose to spend it. And then, just maybe, it becomes a priority not a ‘get to eventually’.