For the rest of the summer, we’re focusing on articles that reflect the different pace of the summer months. These are still the stories we couldn’t stop talking about around the office, but with a twist.
Be productive, take a vacation
Why is it that a week away feels longer than a month at your desk? A recent piece in The European Times, by Gaston de Persigny, explores the science behind our brains on vacation and in doing so provides a case for taking the time you keep putting off.
New places force your brain out the autopilot it operates under in normal routines and rhythms. When we travel, we have unfamiliar experiences, activating neuroplasticity, or our brain’s ability to build new bridges between cells. That novelty also changes our experience of time: familiar days blur together into a haze, but novel ones get stored with more detail, or more “markers.” This means more perceived time. That’s the trick behind why a week somewhere new can outlast a month at the office.
It’s not just perception, but a real reset. Stepping off the task-switching treadmill lets your brain wander, which is when it actually solves the problems you couldn’t crack while staring at them. Science backs up what most of us already feel: a good break makes us “more focused, more creative, and more resilient” when we’re back.
So go ahead and take the time. It’s not wasted.
What are you measuring?
As we think about breaking up rhythms and cycles in the office, this piece in Inc from Bruce Eckfeldt about how we structure our meetings felt a natural addendum. The author draws on experiences from his career to highlight the subtle ways our meetings are structured for repeating past success, not real growth. If our meetings only measure project milestones, we’ll be really good at keeping track of progress, but may miss larger opportunities.
He gives an example: One team nailed every goal for a quarter but in the end, couldn’t come up with one new insight about the client. A picture of failure amidst success.
His answer is not to add more milestones to your existing schedule, but instead to add a simple data point for learning to current meetings.
That can look as simple as logging what didn’t work. Another team started noting initiatives that never made it to fruition. Rather than a catalogue of failures, these provided the team the freedom to highlight dead ends much earlier in the lifecycle.
Make learning a part of every deliverable, updating the rhythm of your team’s regular meetings. What you measure is a reflection of your priorities.