I was recently on an extended trip in Eurasia. I visited technology and startup centers in leading locations such as Tallinn and Netherlands, taking note of their innovations and market needs. I can’t emphasize enough how invaluable it is for your creative process to get away regularly.
But such a break often brings a change of routine. So how do you reset yourself once you get back?
Some of my tips:
1. Revisit Your Vision
Review your vision and mission statements. Remind yourself of the why you’re doing what you’re doing.
What markets do you serve? How will your offering serve them? Why is your offering far better than any of the alternatives? Why is it your moral and ethical duty to help your prospects realize they need your offer? What does their success look like? What does your success look like?
Update such statements to reflect new perspectives you may have gained.
Then create or update your vision board – your subconscious is a powerful cheerleader.
2. Ruthlessly Prioritize
From your travels you may have a million new ideas to add to your list of things to do. Ruthlessly prioritize. Cut out distractions. Drop what doesn’t push your vision forward. We all have 24 hours in our day – no more no less.
3. Know Your Personal Rhythm
We each have certain parts of our day where we’re more creative. Parts of our day where we’re more productive. Parts of our day where we’re more reflective. Maybe it’s changed for you now.
Know your personal rhythm – it may not be the same as your neighbor’s.
4. Plan and Execute
It takes time to form a habit – even if it’s one you previously had. If you aren’t already doing this, once a week map out your priorities for the next seven days. Every night write down your tasks for the next day. Review them first thing in the morning.
Reduce any cognitive load. Take as much mental clutter as you can out of your brain and put it on paper – execute against this.
5. Check Your Environment
You may find that certain locations, lighting, settings, crowds, etc. result in higher productivity. I find that having a whiteboard within arm’s reach is a big boost for me. Take stock of what works for you.
6. Eliminate the Dopamine Seeking Distractions
Be mindful of where your information comes from. A lot of information out there is simply clickbait or designed to keep you on an endless dopamine seeking loop.
It may cost more but I generally keep the content I consume to paywalled sources. The reason? It’s usually much higher quality.
For my daily news I have subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and NY Times. This also gives me a balanced view across the political spectrum. Wikipedia can be useful but I still prefer Encyclopedia Britannica Online as my go to encyclopedia. Professional subscriptions such as ACM are informative. Apple News+ has been a great way to access a significant number of published magazines I read. Tip: don’t use the summary view of Apple News+ – this is designed to highlight the articles that incite emotion rather than inform you. See: endless dopamine seeking loop above.
Productivity tools are also invaluable. For example I use WasteNoTime to block access to social media sites during my productive hours and NoComment to block out comments from all sites except a few (e.g. Stack Overflow).
The reason for using something like NoComment? A remarkable gift of our age is that we can all freely and anonymously express our opinions online. But ever notice that a lot of comments sections are now filled with noise and emotion rather than informed opinion? See: endless dopamine seeking loop above. This is great for website engagement but not for your individual efficiency. Life is a bell curve – in any area of interest find the experts who are as far to the right side of that bell curve as possible – those are the opinions that will deliver the most bang for your buck in the value vs time scale.
7. Restate Your Goals Publicly
This is always a powerful tip. Now that you’re back restate your goals to the people around you. This reinforces to your subconscious that you’re still fully committed and keeps you accountable to yourself.
Nice work!