The 2013 article “Why You Should Work From a Coffee Shop Even When You Have an Office” inspired this post which explains the importance of taking the time to focus on your business.
Entrepreneurs and leaders of companies of all sizes oftentimes get lost in working in their business. The to-do list they came into the office with in this morning grew, not shrunk, by the time they left the office. The urgent drives out the important. What do you do about it?
The Ideal Clarity Break™
Take a Clarity Break. This break is an opportunity to work on your business. Clarity breaks are very personal. By which I mean, you decide where and when and how often to take them. My passionate plea is that you take them. Schedule them in your Daytimer or in your Google Calendar.
The characteristics of a good Clarity Break are:
- they are away from your place of business
- they are at a frequency that you can afford and is helpful to you
- they are of a duration that allows you to think clearly and achieve some results, and
- generally they are done without all our electronic devices turned on
Gino Wickman, the founder of EOS®, takes them one morning a week in a Starbucks. Just him, his coffee, and a yellow legal pad. He often says that at the start he sometimes finds himself staring at the pad, but almost always ideas, concerns, questions arise from the back of his mind and good thinking starts. Clients of mine have reported taking them in their local library or just getting up before the rest of their household and securing themselves in the family room or an office. The key is to find a set of characteristics that work for you.
Where do you take your clarity breaks? We all would love another place to go.
Next Steps:
- Watch Mark O’Donnell describe the 8 Questions Your Leadership Team Should Answer to help you clarify your company vision
- Take the Organizational Checkup® to get a picture of your company’s strengths and weaknesses, along with a roadmap for improvement.
- Request a free 90-Minute Meeting with an EOS Implementer® to get a clear picture of what it looks like to run your company on EOS.