Clarity Breaks
By definition, a clarity break is time away from the office dedicated to looking at your business and life from a 30,000-ft. view. The purpose of clarity breaks is to set aside 30-60 minutes each week to review and reflect without distractions.
I first learned about clarity breaks when we implemented the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) in our business. EOS creator Gino Wickman writes in his book Traction, “Great leaders have a habit of taking quiet thinking time… After taking a clarity break, you will come back into the business clear, focused, and confident.”
I have practiced regular clarity breaks for a few years now, and I will provide some tips that may help you in your business.
Express Gratitude
I always begin my clarity breaks with a positive focus and review my week. I write down 3-5 personal highlights and 3-5 professional highlights for the week. I love having weeks of documented highlights to review; I can then choose my 3-5 highlights of the entire quarter. I have noticed that beginning my clarity breaks in a place of gratitude and positivity fuels my creativity.
Review Goals
During my clarity breaks, I review my 90-day goals, 1-year goals, 5-year goals, and lifetime goals and check in on my progress. This session is not intended to be a deep dive review or to establish new goals and plans, but rather to problem-solve how to reach my current goals.
Many businesses have specific strategic plans that can be reviewed during this time. At Menlo Group, we have used the Playing to Win strategy for a few years, and in this context, I review my Playing to Win cascade and establish what is and isn’t working.
To guide my thought process, I ask myself and ponder the following questions:
Am I spending my time on the most important things?
Where am I currently frustrated? With any person or process?
If I could only work for four hours next week, what would I work on?
If I could make one change to our company process next quarter, what would it be?
Is everyone on our team a good fit? Is everyone the “right person in the right seat?”
Take Notes
I have gone back and forth between typing my notes in Evernote and writing in a physical notebook. I am back to writing in the notebook because it limits my temptation to review email, texts, Slacks or Voxer messages that come in. (If you are thinking huh?, you can read my previous post on communication.) I will then take a picture of my notes and add it into Evernote afterwards.
Set a Schedule
I have found that taking time out of normal business hours doesn’t allow me the clarity I’m looking for, so I take my clarity breaks early in the morning and almost always on Fridays. It’s also important to choose a location outside the office.
I look forward to this time each week because it gives me a chance to rise above the “tyranny of the urgent” (as explained by Charles E. Hummel) and envision things the way I aspire for them to be and to make course corrections on my habits, plans or goals.