Making people and ideas findable
Schedule Time With Yourself to Think
As a business owner, what's your greatest resource that costs you nothing to use? Your brain. When properly utilized and focused, your brain can transform your business and life for the better...like nothing else can. But how often do you fully engage and leverage this powerful resource? How often do you slow down and make the time to think deeply about your business? To think, write and plan in a quiet setting with minimal interruptions or distractions? Probably not too often. Odds are, you feel that you are too busy, too frazzled, too involved or too worried to take the time. But that's the point! As a business coach, I can tell you with the utmost certainty that most troubles and problems faced by small business owners are not only self inflicted but come about because owners do not schedule enough time to THINK.
Since your brain is your idea factory, it should be operating at optimal capacity and producing a tremendous output
of good ideas. However, because of busyness, distractions, interruptions, and constant fire drills, owners do not spend enough quality time thinking and their production level of good ideas is suppressed. When was the last time you scheduled time by yourself in a quiet setting to think without distractions and interruptions (e-mails popping up, employees asking questions, phones ringing, a Blackberry buzzing, etc.)? Don't you think it's about time to do some concentrated thinking?
Since your brain is your idea factory, it should be operating at optimal capacity and producing a tremendous output
of good ideas. However, because of busyness, distractions, interruptions, and constant fire drills, owners do not spend enough quality time thinking and their production level of good ideas is suppressed. When was the last time you scheduled time by yourself in a quiet setting to think without distractions and interruptions (e-mails popping up, employees asking questions, phones ringing, a Blackberry buzzing, etc.)? Don't you think it's about time to do some concentrated thinking?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Duke Snyder on -
Always a proper and timely subject you bring us today, Thomas.
That is said by one who considers it to be the most potent managerial lesson I was ever taught.
More than a few personal recollections of this lesson being reinforced in me could be listed but they always come back to something a guy my age, (roughly 25 or so at the time) shared with me more than 40 years ago. Your mention of one hour per day to yourself devoted strictly for thinking and planning is exactly the formula he suggested as well.
His basic point was that to not give yourself an hour a day for "personal think-time" meant you were cheating yourself, your family, your friends, your employer and yes, even God because if we don't care enough about ourselves to plan and execute the things best for our personal well-being we can't really say we truly are concerned or care about all those others either.
As best I recall my friend Bob's closing statement likened failing to secure that single hour for "think time" every day as insane as an individual deciding on the spur-of-the-moment to drive to California...without a roadmap. And did you think before departing of ensuring you are equipped with a jack and spare tire; maybe a gasoline can for crossing the Mojave and similar sparse territory? Enough money to cover a vehicle breakdown?
Most adults know Interstate 80 will get you to California but just where in that sewer of bankruptcy and high unemployment did you plan to call "home?"
Believe I shall take out a clean legal pad and spend an hour or so working on my own map.
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Permalink Reply by Laina Molaski on -
Great post!! Now if I could only get that thinking time scheduled in my calendar. All kidding aside you are right that we tend to go, go, go our down time to be clear headed and really think is minimal.
Laina
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Barnes on -
Thanks Laina - - I love your name. Keep on thinking
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Permalink Reply by Allison K. Lewis on -
Agreed. Have you read "Never Check Email in the Morning"? It really made me aware of the constant distractions and how chopped up our days are with soundbyte work time instead of concentrated blocks. It's harder to do than it sounds, though!
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1. Please use your real name (first and last) when you sign up, or we cannot open your account
2. Please do not use logos or commercial images for your profile photo
3. Events should be posted in the events calendar
4. You can post pretty much anything you want on your own personal page (self promotion, etc), and you can change the style of your personal profile page to reflect your corporate identification if you so choose.
5. Please keep all comments civil and polite. It's OK to feel strongly about a subject, and it's OK to be critical of ideas, but please refrain from personal attacks of any kind.
If you witness or experience any issues, please contact admin@smallerindiana.com and we will look into the matter.
6. Smaller Indiana is supported by its members, and by corporate sponsors. If you're interested in learning more about sponsorship, please call Pat Coyle at 317 332 7878.
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