My post a couple weeks ago on Gratitude, for Gratitude, generated a large number of responses. Interestingly, most were private, commenting on both the nature of gratitude but especially on my daily routine. I had detailed my regular set of activities in the morning, including meditation and the setting of three key priorities, and in the evening of reflecting on my performance with those priorities. Many folks mentioned that they had morning and perhaps evening routines, but said they had not thought about reflection – let alone intentional reflection.
My contemplation of those comments was brought into focus a bit when I came across a passage in the book Kurt Vonnegut: Letters, edited by Dan Wakefield. It’s a fascinating, funny, and, since it’s Vonnegut, sometimes freaky book that takes you inside the mind of the famous author. The passage of import is a letter he wrote to his wife Jane where he describes his daily routine.
In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me. I’m just as glad they haven’t consulted me about the tiresome details. What they have worked out is this: I awake at 5:30, work until 8:00, eat breakfast at home, work until 10:00, walk a few blocks into town, do errands, go to the nearby municipal swimming pool, which I have all to myself, and swim for half an hour, return home at 11:45, read the mail, eat lunch at noon. In the afternoon I do schoolwork, either teach of prepare. When I get home from school at about 5:30, I numb my twanging intellect with several belts of Scotch and water ($5.00/fifth at the State Liquor store, the only liquor store in town. There are loads of bars, though.), cook supper, read and listen to jazz (lots of good music on the radio here), slip off to sleep at ten.
Of course most people have routines, and many people like learning about the routines of famous or successful people. One common characteristic that most people know of is that they are almost invariably early risers – Winston Churchill being the exception as someone who loved to stay in bed until 11am. I tend to agree – my favorite, and most productive, time of the day is between 4 and 8 am.
Benjamin Franklin is famous for his routine, which he meticulously tracked on a daily log. Yes, that does look remarkably similar to a leader standard work sheet, doesn’t it? Notice the two tasks on the left.
The morning question, What good shall I do today?
The evening question, What good have I done today?
In other words, setting tasks for the day in the morning, and reflecting on them in the evening. When you search for the routines of successful (however defined) people, that evening reflection is also a common attribute.
Reflection, along with gratitude as I previously discussed, is a key attribute of leadership success.
Many, if not most, people have daily routines. It is the reflection at the end of the day that makes it an intentional routine. That intentionality is also a core component of mindfulness. An awareness of the routine itself, instead of being simply a habitual series of activities. Reflection looks back at the process and results and, most importantly, provides the introspection and analysis to improve the routine and performance generated by the routine.
How did the routine affect performance against the key tasks for the day? How effective is that task selection itself? How can the routine be improved to better support task completion?
Reflection, hansei in the lean world, is a powerful professional leadership tool. It’s how we look back on projects and performance, and identify ways to improve. But it is also a powerful, and critical, personal leadership characteristic to improve daily performance.
Reflection converts simple habits into an intentional, high performing, routine. It’s worth a few minutes each evening.
Bill Fester says
While I’ve been remiss and not caught up in reading your latest post until this afternoon, I certainly appreciate what you’ve said here. Ironically I’d just not more than an hour before glanced through a very short Business Insider bit from a Hindu Monk regarding wealth (http://www.businessinsider.com/monk-says-wealth-is-a-good-thing-2014-12). The cross reference isn’t so much on his personal philosophy of wealth or material acquisition or disregard. Instead, it’s seems like a very similar statement in regards to chores (which can be construed as routines at least for me). He states as one of his pieces of advice ” “steering clear of excessive usefulness,” meaning doing things for their own sake rather than turning tasks into chores”. I think what he means is something similar to intentional habits and not simply robotic activity without mindfulness.
I also wanted to add something myself to the concept of routines coming from the standpoint of a middle age guy who was lucky enough to grow up on a farm,especially now that we’re bearing down on the Winter Solstice. In a world much more common a century and more ago, back home the Intentional Routine (the mindful habit), was not something strictly bound by a day. Instead, the efficient farmer was routine based throughout the entire agrarian year and more, wasting as little as possible in all manner of resources (including daylight) while planning and executing projects (planting or harvesting for example) by all manner of signs (lunar, solar, natural, calendar,etc). That the days fit into that whole, which if you think about it can be extrapolated out even farther throughout the life and death cycle that crops, animals and so forth have. His existence was almost an invisible second, minute, hour clock set which meant that while the movement’s gearing was inevitable, it was important to step back and examine what each small bit of that meant.
David says
Your post brought to mind Stephen Covey’s 7-Habits and Principle-centered Leadership books. Thanks for the reminder!
Robert Drescher says
Hi Kevin
I like the idea of taking time for reflection, and I think it is a good way to end a day. Though for most people that are using their mental abilities to earn a living, intentional reflection time should often occur far more than once a day. In fact after most important meetings, or after doing and important task taking time to reflect on what has just happened can be far more important than moving on to the next task.
Taking moments to reflect on what has just happened not only helps you solidify what was key about what just happened, but will also help you be better prepared for the next task in your day, and will be especially helpful when a similar task come along. Intentional reflection helps us all better absorb the lessons we just learned. An additional aid would be to have a journal handy at these reflective moments and to write down some of those key points and lessons. After all write something by hand helps drive it even deeper into our memory. Any lesson that you learn deeply, will always help even if you never actually think about it, after all a large part of what we get done each day gets handled by the subconscious part of our mind. The subconscious gets most of it learning through the act of reflection and note taking, it has been proven that what we put effort into thinking about (reflection and writing) has a greater effect on the subconscious than other forms of stimulation.