Prioritising Thinking Time

I recently came across a fascinating story about Charles Darwin. With credit to Rachel Botsman for this one.

Not long after Darwin moved into Down House in Kent, where he would live for the remaining forty years of his life, he constructed a gravel path. A quarter-mile loop circling a small wood and open fields beside his house. He planted birch, lime, hazel and dogwood along its edges until it became a green leafy corridor. Others called it Sand Walk; he called it his “thinking path.”

Twice a day, rain or shine, Darwin would head out with his little terrier and walk the circuit again and again, turning problems over in his mind. At one end of the path he kept a small pile of flints, knocking one aside each time he passed. The number of knocked stones became a measure of difficulty: some walks were two-pebble problems, some four, others took six. Over decades, while circling this loop, he would reflect on one of the most consequential ideas in the history of science.

This story from Rachel caught my eye. And this is why…

One of the biggest challenges in senior leadership is how to spend your time.

I don’t mean that you can’t fill it; I mean the opposite. You can fill it with so many different things that you can end up rushing around, keeping busy, without actually achieving much.

There are a number of factors that sit behind this.

First, you are at the top of your organisation because you are extremely capable, and probably able to turn your hand to most things.

Second, and this one is often grossly underestimated, it isn’t always clear what your job should involve. Whether you are a CEO, a Managing Partner, a Managing Director, or similar in your industry, you will no doubt have a job description which sets out overall purpose of the role, responsibilities, accountabilities and desired outcomes. Where does it tell you though what this actually looks like in practice in terms of how you spend your time?

Third, in the often pressurised space in which you find yourself in senior leadership, it can be tempting to fill your time with ‘comfort zone’ activities – the ones you are familiar with, or especially good at, rather than the ones the organisation actually needs you to do.

Fourth, being busy can often give a sense of satisfaction. You can feel pleased that you have so much on. This is why I always find the simple phrase ‘don’t be a busy fool’ a useful one to keep in mind…

Fifth - if you have a diary that isn’t full to brimming with meetings and events, might you feel a bit of a fraud, especially when everyone around you is working so hard?

I’m sure you might be able to think of some more.

This lack of clarity on how to spend your time will have various consequences; today I want to pick up on the impact on ‘thinking’ time. It’s an issue I have written about previously, and one I am seeing more and more in my coaching practice, not least due to the increasing pace at which the world is moving.

One of my favourite simple ‘flips’ that I use in my coaching is as follows: when things are busy, rather than saying to yourself ‘I’m so busy that I haven’t got time to exercise’ you should be saying ‘I’m so busy that I must make time for exercise.’ And I think I have now invented a new one. When everything is moving and changing so quickly, and you have so many complex and complicated challenges to meet and problems to solve, rather than saying ‘I’m feeling so overwhelmed that I just have to crack on’ you should be saying ‘I’m feeling so overwhelmed that I need to prioritise thinking time.’

Stepping back. Giving yourself time and space to think properly – strategically, critically, analytically. Plotting out the chess board. Thinking about what needs you. Who needs you. How they need you.

Those of you who are aware of the Eisenhower priority matrix popular in time management will be aware that this fits squarely the top right box – Important but Not Urgent.

So what’s the main challenge here? Experience working with a variety of senior leaders has shown me that it isn’t usually around the validity of the concept - it’s much more around making sure it happens.

There is a huge amount of research, insight and practical tips in terms of building habits and creating disciplines for yourself. In simple terms, much of it boils down to the following in this situation.

·       Make the good behaviour easy and the bad behaviour hard. In other words, put in place systems and processes that make the behaviours you are trying to achieve (ensuring sufficient thinking time in your working week, in a way that works for you) easy. That might be blocking out diary time. It might be ensuring you have a daily walk, just like Darwin.

·       Enlist the support of others. This is where your EA comes into play. As gatekeepers of your diary, ensure they have clarity on your priorities, what should be going into your diary, and what should not. Ask your colleagues what they need from you, and what they don’t. Where they need you, and where they don’t. 

·       Spend a bit of time thinking for yourself on why this is important (this will help your motivation to continue to good habits when things inevitably slip). Think about what advice you would give to someone in your shoes. Think about the potential outcomes for your organisation of (a) you creating the appropriate time and space for thinking versus (b) you not doing so.

·       Set tripwires. At the end of each week, reflect back on how much space you have made for thinking time. If you have cancelled your diary blocks, not had your walk on two days that week, or put a couple of meetings in your diary that on reflection were not ones you should have been spending time on, use this as a ‘tripwire’ to remind you to get back on track.

Movement isn’t equal to progress. Activity doesn’t necessarily equal productivity. Now, more than ever, give yourself the time and space to THINK.