If you look at my Google Calendar you’ll see that I carve out four days per year (once per quarter) to just drive and think. In this post I’ll share how this came to be and why you should do the same.
I believe it was 2021 that I was called for jury duty. I didn’t bring my laptop because I assumed I’d be busy deciding someone’s jail sentence or innocence. But guess what? I wasn’t selected! I was chosen instead to sit in a room all day, in case they needed an alternate or in case a new jury pool was needed for some new case that came in. So they literally stuck me (and like 75 other people) in a room, where we just sat around for some six hours.
I hate being unproductive, so initially I tried to do some research for my next sermon from my phone, but this very quickly gave me a headache from staring intently at such a small screen. I then decided I’d listen to an audiobook, and would have, had I thought to bring my AirPods. But alas, I didn’t. So I went to my email, but having systematically trained people for years not to email me, this took me about three minutes. So there I was with nothing to do with the whole day in front of me.
At first I was bored to tears and was asking God what I had done to deserve the awful punishment of inactivity (not really, but you get the idea). But as it turns out, what was initially viewed as a punishment, turned out to be a wonderful blessing. As the hours ticked away, my mind began to wander. I began asking myself questions like:
- What should I focus on in the upcoming year for professional development?
- What’s something strategic we could begin doing that 5-10 years from now I’ll be really happy we did?
- What position do we need to hire for next?
- What are some worthy goals to set in this next season of ministry?
- Etc.
To me it was nothing short of magical. When I simply took time to think, the right questions started populating in my mind, as did great answers to those questions. Things just became clear. Stop doing that. Start doing this. This is what you need to focus on. Etc. That day ended up mapping out my strategic focuses for the next year, and it would take twenty pages to share all the good that came from that one day.
So as that year came to a close and I was reflecting on which endeavors were most fruitful that year, I realized how productive my jury duty think day was, and decided to start scheduling such days intentionally (not wanting my next think day to be the next time I was scheduled for jury duty). I had initially done it by accident, now I wanted to do it on purpose. So for 2022 I put four “drive and think days” on my calendar (one per quarter) because 1) I needed time to think and 2) I love driving around (especially through the wilderness laden backroads of Vermont). And these drive and think days continue to be some of my most productive days all year. Every time I finish one I question whether I should do these every other month vs once per quarter. That’s how productive and beneficial they are.
Now at jury duty, since it wasn’t a planned think day, I populated the questions on that day. But nowadays, since I know a drive and think day is coming, I add items to a list on my phone between drive and think days, so that when one comes, I know exactly what questions I’m going to answer. I went on one just yesterday and had on my list (among others) the following questions:
- What should I do for my personal quiet time in 2024?
- What should I do for my professional development in 2024?
- What should our DLT quarterly off-sites look like in 2024? How will a new location in Agawam, MA change what we cover in our off-sites?
I took these questions one at a time, gave hours of thought to each, and landed in a super healthy place that I’m really excited about for all three. Just like at jury duty, a little reflection helped me map out strategic focuses for the upcoming year.
Now I stumbled upon the value of taking time out of my schedule to think, reflect and evaluate. But as it turns out, this is something top CEOs across the country prioritize as a super important part of their job.
- In Robert Iger’s autobiography The Ride of a Lifetime I read how he wakes up at 4:15am each day and does so because he believes “It’s vital that each day you make time to let your thoughts wander beyond your immediate job responsibilities, to turn things over in your mind in a less pressured, more creative way than is possible once the daily triage kicks in.”
- Likewise, in CEO Excellence (written by Dewar, Keller, and Malhotra) the authors share how one top CEO stated “My aspiration is to be free 70% of the time so I can think, reflect, and have the time to deal with important things as they come up.” They said that the best CEOs build blocks of open time into their schedule for such purposes.
- In 10x is Easier Than 2x (by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy) I read, “To find big ideas you need lots of free time. Your best and most innovative ideas will occur while you’re unplugged from the busyness of work and really able to expand and contract your thinking – going hyper micro and hyper macro – expanding the vision, coming up with new ideas, etc. This is how Bill Gates famously got most of the big ideas that led to Microsoft’s exponential growth in the 1990s and early 2000s. He would take think weeks where he’d totally disappear for a few weeks, totally unreachable to anyone and without distraction, and just read countless articles and books. He’d then just think, reflect, ponder, visualize and ultimately get incredible ideas and breakthroughs. Doubtless involved in this process were a select few people he could bounce his ideas back-and-forth with, which was essential to iterating his thinking and ideas.”
- In The One Thing You Need to Know (by Marcus Buckingham) I learned that one of three most prevalent disciplines of a good leader is to take time to reflect and think. Buckingham writes “The best leaders I’ve ever studied all discipline themselves to take time out of their working lives to think. They all muse. They all reflect. They all seem to realize that this thinking time is incredibly valuable time, for it forces them to process all that has happened, to sift through the clutter, to run ideas up the proverbial flagpole and then yank them back down again, and in the end to conclude. And it’s this ability to draw conclusions that allows them to project such clarity.“
Now you may or may not like to drive (and that’s fine). You might prefer to take a walk in nature or sit at a Starbucks with a coffee and journal. I don’t think there’s a wrong way to do this. I think the only thing that would be wrong is to not do it at all.
At New Day we talk about working in it and working on it. Your think days are your time to work on it. On these days you think about how things are going and consider what changes might be strategic to make. You prayerfully determine worthwhile priorities, goals, initiatives and decide the best thing(s) to focus your limited time and energy on. I promise you, these will prove to be some of your most productive days of the year.
So what are you waiting for? Open Google Calendar, and schedule your first think day. It’s impossible to be a strategic and innovative leader without carving out time to think, so put something on the calendar today.