Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Not too long ago, my boss, Dan Berger, wrote a nice piece on his blog about balance. Dan loves the outdoors, and he writes about how being in nature helps him recharge and refocus. 

I quite agree. With that in mind, my extended family will all gather at the beach next week. I plan to help Kate and Briggs dig holes and build castles. I plan on enjoying an early cup of coffee with my mother. I plan on laughing quite a bit.  And beyond that, I don't plan on planning anything else. 

And that isn't necessarily a bad thing. In a nice article, Art Petty argues that freeing your mind is a very useful thing to do.

I see the long-term impact of no down-time…no thinking time in the form of worn-out mid-career managers and exhausted senior leaders who struggle through their days. They’ll describe in private that they no longer feel the same passion for the work they once loved, and they worry that they’ve lost their edge and will be unable to get it back. They are worried and frightened of what this state portends for the balance of their careers.

What we fail to do in our workdays is find time to think deeply. From unstructured conversations to reflective time on our own roles and our performance in the workplace, the time spent thinking and talking without a deadline is valuable processing time.

This isn’t down time, it’s different time. Instead of unproductive busyness, it’s productive un-busyness. It’s the root source of ideas and connections between ideas. It’s the time when we see our way forward through complex problems and toward solutions that have been otherwise elusive.

So here's to a little down time. May you find some yourself this summer, or better yet, this week. 

Kate and Briggs at the beach last year.

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I hope you don't mind, but next week, I'll bring out some of my "oldies but goodies" posts. The beach beckons, and time is flying with Kate and Briggs.