This summer I had the absolute pleasure of taking a 12-day trip to Costa Rica with my family. I must admit, it came at a perfect time when I needed a bit of a break from all the things and to re-balance and let go of the day-to-day. On this trip, unlike so many others, I didn’t even bring my laptop (egad!), which was like leaving my right arm at home (I got over missing it pretty quickly though).
It’s not often we get opportunities to block that much time away from work. Yet, that vacation was a perfect blend of bonding, exploring, relaxing, reflecting, self-care, and learning. I’m not here to brag about my time away but rather to say the trip reminded me about the importance of what I call the brain reset.
A long weekend here and there is nice but, as life allows, dedicated and thoughtful idle time away from your work life has proven benefits. Research demonstrates that doing so is linked to better health outcomes, like lower rates of heart disease; reduced stress, depression, and anxiety; improved productivity; and overall higher life satisfaction. These benefits can last for months and, bonus, they have a ripple effect for your colleagues and teams.
Our innate desire to be productive, to be “on” and busy, gets us hooked on the juice that is work. The pressure to be productive at all costs is so counter to time away and think time, we forget all the reasons why we deeply need the ever elusive time away from work. Between better health outcomes and the proven need for us to take time to reflect, think and re-think, and examine without interruption, I believe it is imperative we change the way we define success. Imagine if success was measured by our ability to engage with and help others in a meaningful way, or if our success is derived from solving a unique issue after much time to reflect and noodle (my official term for thinking on something).
The cultural pressure to produce and “put in the hours” is not healthy and does not result in results. Down time to think, reflect, noodle and doodle can absolutely be time well spent. Want to learn more? Check out the book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman for psychological proof about how our brains work and problem solve. Or, check out this article about why we feel so darn busy when we are no more productive than prior generations.
Recently, my executive leadership accountabilities were expanded. With new folks on my leadership team, I provided the leaders on the team a brain dump of stuff—everything from my preference on marking time away in calendar to thoughts on leadership and culture-impacting actions we take as leaders. Included in this brain dump was the importance of taking time away and encouraging our team members to do the same.
If we credit union acolytes are here to serve our communities, it behooves us to start modeling how to take time away—really away (even staycations have health benefits!). Now, stop reading this and go plan some think time.
