Years ago, Tom Peters wrote a column describing a business trip during which he observed a plane-load of managers earnestly studying case folders, reading business journals or books, or scribbling notes on legal pads. He suggested that business travel was an excellent opportunity to pick up a best-selling adventure story from the airport bookstore to read on the plane. Take a break, lighten up: you’ll be a better manager for it, he argued.
We tend to over-focus on work, to the point that we become unable to see clearly what it is we’re doing. A good novel gives you a deserved break. Many have noted that even a short breather can help uncloud the mind, enabling you to return to work with a fresh perspective - but it can often do more than that.
Reading fiction, or anything interesting to you, such as something from the arts, classical literature, the hard sciences, or history, can not only give you that break, but provide eye-opening insights that are directly relevant to your work. In this way, it can be something like sleep; while you rest, or even dream, your mind more calmly - and discerningly - makes connections from the broader array of stimuli you present it.
Think of it as cross-training. Athletes used to train by focussing on their particular events, but we now know that to compete at the highest levels all athletes must have an intelligent and diverse cross-training program; many of these would have seemed perverse wastes of limited time in the old days, but we now know they are vital. The same applies to the skill-development and maintenance activities of managers.
This would suggest that you might make this sort of activity a regular part of your daily or weekly regime, and you should. Carry a (non-work or -business related) book with you that you’ve seen a good review about, or download an ebook version of it into your computer or, better, your PDA (since that’s always with you). Read it during specified times of the day, say, during a coffee break or lunch. When any unanticipated spare time pops up which is too long to let remain idle, yet too short to take up a business task (or that occurs where or when that is impractical), break out your reading and enjoy a refreshing and uniquely productive use of this odd dollop of otherwise irritatingly ill-used time from your day.
You will often find that you return to work not only mentally rested, but with insights culled from the most unexpected aspects of your reading that you will find yourself eager to explore for use in your work.
Enjoy your weekend!
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2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] Maybe there’s something to this balance thing - as long as it’s practiced by both men and women. As discussed in previous posts (see here and here), it will make managers - male and female - more rewardingly productive in all aspects of their lives. [...]
[...] But, as we’ve also noted (please see here and here), this sort of balance and variety isn’t just a euphemism for trying to skip out of work, and neither is it merely a worthwhile value in and of itself. It actually can be an unexpected help - sometimes even a vital one - to enjoying and being effective in all aspects of one’s life, including especially work. [...]
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