Written by: Anuradha Rathore, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Solitude, silence, and stillness fuel me, protect my inspiration and help me stay in the creative space I need to do my best work. Summer was fun, rambunctious, loud, and hectic. After months of travel, multiple trips to waterparks, and carpools, I was looking forward to spending a quiet Friday with myself on the lake, sipping coffee, reading, and journaling. So, I meticulously planned my day off.
By midnight Thursday, my email was overflowing, and the phone kept going. It felt like everyone in the world needed me. By Friday morning, there was no way I was going to step away from my computer. My day off was in serious jeopardy.
But something kept nagging me. So finally, I decided to step away. Brace yourself, and this is how it went,
For the first fifteen minutes, I sat down on the rocks, arguing with myself, calculating how much I would have done by now.
For the next fifteen minutes, my focus shifted to others: people I am letting down, people who must be waiting to get ‘stuff’ done.
For the next few minutes, I surrendered to the discomfort of sitting still on the edge of the beautiful lake Michigan. Then, with some curiosity, ‘Let’s see what happens.’
I sat there journaling my frustration, second guessing my sanity, and often questioning, ‘what’s the point? It’s not like I am enjoying being here!’.
I was exhausted from this internal conflict when I slipped into the next hour. I simply sat there sipping my coffee, staring at the shimmering water, reluctantly enjoying the wind on my face, just zoning out.
The chatter in my head was dying, my shoulders were not stiff anymore, and I didn’t believe I was thinking about anything.
After about ninety minutes, something jolted me out of my stillness. So, I got up, drove home, and got back to work.
I spent two and half hours by the lake, not quite what I had in my mind. But believe me when I tell you, I was done with all my work by mid-afternoon, with better results. I was all caught up.
What I am describing here in such pedantic detail is not some magic, but you could call it a productivity hack. I am the most efficient and overtly organized human I know. I have systems and processes in place for everything.
But the more I consciously slow down and put my monomaniacal designs aside, I realize I am addicted to ‘doing.’ Not to be presumptuous, but I believe many of us are suffering from that addiction to keep ‘doing.’ It’s our safe space.
We now know that as a society, we have been seduced into believing that if we are constantly doing something, overworking ourselves to death, we are being productive. So, we love wearing workaholism as a badge of honor.
Little do we know that this act of self-sabotage is bludgeoning our capacity for critical thinking, collaboration, and leadership.
How do we break down this vicious hardwired cycle of ‘Busy being busy?’
One way we can do that is by ‘Stepping away.’ When your brain gets an opportunity to rest, your creativity, communication, and problem-solving ability increase tenfold.
It only makes perfect business sense to teach, practice, and implement such an essential skill in our workforce because it will positively impact the business’ bottom line.
Turns out, truly ‘stepping away’ is one of those elusive skills we don’t know how to teach or learn. It’s not a part of any curriculum.
We need to inculcate this skill set into the very fabric of the organizational culture. We need to do more than just say, ‘Take a break.’
When I work with my compulsive overachievers and their teams, I help them develop a schematics for ‘stepping away and shutting down in a manner that will work for them in their professional and personal space. We focus on developing strategies that will allow them to disconnect, disengage and extricate themselves from their grind so they can show up as their best selves.
If you are invested in your workforce and want to help them build capacity for renewal with action based and battle-tested ‘stepping away’ strategies., we must chat.
Follow me on LinkedIn for more info!
Anuradha Rathore, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
To solve a business challenge, you must address the human challenge.
More than ever, the world needs confident, compassionate leaders and high-trust, courageous teams that foster creative conflicts and embrace disagreements to navigate complexities and thrive in the face of relentless uncertainty.
Anu Rathore is a Business Performance Coach, consultant, and mentor to leaders and entrepreneurs. She works with organizations and individuals to develop and amplify their latent, ineffable skills and mindset, which are not very well defined but are increasingly important in this ever-transforming ecosystem.
Her clients love that working with her allows them to show up powerfully in the world while staying aligned with their true selves. She focuses on developing leaders as holistic individuals because, contrary to conventional wisdom, you shouldn’t have to choose between success, happiness, and joyous living.
