Are you planning for space? Are you blocking out time to complete those creative thinking tasks? Or is your diary getting filled with back-to-back virtual meetings that are draining your productivity?
I had the best day yesterday. You know why? I only had 2 meetings. From 9-11am and the rest of the day was free to work, complete critical tasks and be creative.
I then fielded a call from an executive late last night who worked back-to-back from eight till six on VC and he was exhausted, cranky, low vibration energy, limiting thoughts, not hopeful.
And I thought….
That’s also me when I’m back-to-back on virtual meetings.
So what’s the perfect balance?
It’s not ok to go back-to-back one day, kill yourself and then have a free day the next.
Continuity of energy is critical.
Being up one day and down the next is soul-destroying.
The brain needs 3 hours of continuous uninterrupted time to shift brain activity from alpha to creative beta. Alpha brain state is intense and can create tension in the environment around you.
The challenge is that it's hard to have the mental agility to go from alpha to beta brain state from one moment to the next.
Leaders are expected to have this level of mental agility and I am seeing increasingly a deep expectation of thought through capability assessments through recruitment and search processes. They want you to perform high in chaos and with limited resources, but still raise your head above the parapet and be strategic.
So try to find three hours a day, in one block, to do you. To work, not to talk. Put rules in place to not be on VCs for 8 hours straight because it's energetically abusive.
A resourceful plan, is to plan for space.