The day-to-day life is where you live, but over the long-term it’s easy to lose focus. Every once in a while, give yourself a day or so to stop everything, think, and refocus on what your long-term goals are.
As productivity site A Life of Productivity points out, most of us need time to step away from the series of daily tasks that all lead into each other to look at the long-term trends of our lives. Microsoft founder Bill Gates takes a week off from work every year to detach, think, and get a different perspective. Most of us likely can’t afford to ditch work for no other reason than to think about our work (at least without sacrificing similarly necessary vacations), but a day is reasonably doable:
When you step back to think hard about what’s most important in your work, and invest in your knowledge and skills—whether by acquiring new knowledge, firing up Lynda.com to learn something new, or having coffee with people you want to learn from—you level up in your work to work smarter, instead of just harder. The ritual pays for itself.
Unlike a vacation, the think break is supposed to be devoted to the broad strokes of your work, rather than the details. You can take some time to brush up on a skill, brainstorm projects, read a book, examine your current workload to find ways it can be improved, or simply asking yourself if you’re satisfied with your work. The specific task doesn’t matter as much as taking a break from the everyday minutiae to see the big picture.
Schedule a Think Break to level up in your work | A Life of Productivity via Rockstar Finance
Photo by Alan Cleaver.
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