It amazes me how little time leaders take to reflect and learn from their experiences. It seems that days blur into weeks, into months and into years and when we finally catch our breath, the holiday is over and we begin the exhausting cycle again with limited learning or changes to our behaviour, performance or impact.
What also fascinates me, is how much time athletes and sports teams invest in reflection, learning, experimentation and practising vs playing the game. For example, a weekly soccer match takes 90 minutes whereas preparing for it takes the rest of the week, with the result that only 5-10% of the time is spent doing and executing vs planning and preparing for the match. It seems that in business (and life) we do the exact opposite-we drown ourselves in execution, reacting and meetings for almost our entire day and barely take a moment to catch our breath, leave our desk for lunch or take a 5 minute walk to get some fresh air.
If youré looking for a simple, impactful way to be more effective with your time (while being a little calmer too😊) I’d encourage you to take 15-20 minutes weekly to review your game of leadership and life. In this way, you’ll create space to pause, think and execute with greater sharpness and impact.
To help you get started, here are some powerful questions to reflect on at the end of your week or weekend (you can also start with selecting 5 questions and build from there:
1. What went well this week that I put effort/energy into?
2. What pleasant surprises did I discover this week?
3. What lessons did I learn that I could build on?
4. What is important to focus on short and medium term?
5. What could I have spent more or less time doing?
6. How did fear / uncertainty affect what I did / didn’t do?
7. What did I avoid doing that is consuming my energy?
8. What physical / mental / emotional / spiritual clutter would be useful to clear?
9. How did I manage my stress and what can I do better next week?
10. What are my first steps/priorities next week?
11. If I knew that next week is going to be a brilliant effective week what do I need to do to ensure it’s set up for this?
Go ahead, give it a go and notice the immediate impact that reviewing your week has on your performance, your mindset and wellbeing.
p.s. look out for my next article on Getting in the Zone-leveraging the power of journaling daily.
