“I Have Been Thinking”

There was a time when the phrase “I have been thinking” would frighten my boss or my team mates, but it is something that I have always done a lot.

I spoke of this recently during the Business PowerUp session for the Small Business Community Network.  It is difficult to find the time for this but it is so important to carve out time to “THINK” about your business.  Our working lives are busy and at times chaotic and it is easy to get caught up in working your way from one task to another, putting out one fire after another or just moving from a call or meeting to the next item on your calendar.  If you are not careful, soon your day, your week, your month or your year has gone past and you have spent very little time on strategic thinking or planning.

It is so important to set aside time just to think.  It can be as simple as putting some time in your calendar, time that will not and cannot be disrupted.  To achieve this, you do not have email open, you turn off notifications, you turn off your phone and simply give yourself time to think.  This can be a mental debrief (what is working and what is not working), it can be to think through and try to problem solve a major issue or perhaps it is thinking about and planning that next presentation, meeting or blog post.

For myself, I like to get up early and take a long walk.  The exercise is good and sets up the day nicely, but more importantly it is time to let my mind run free.  I have come up with so many ideas, worked through so many problems and have done so much planning on my walks, I could never manage a business without them!

No matter your role or business, take some time to think.

If you want some help to brainstorm, feel free to reach out to me.  I love chatting about these things!