With the World Cup well underway and temperature in the UK rising this week all I can think of is hydration breaks. No I am not talking about the hydration break you may have in the bar, when your team wins!… no I am talking about those ‘hydration breaks’ that have been happening throughout the matches for the teams to sip some water, whilst mainly marvelling at the strength of modern air conditioning.
Now my meetings are typically around an hour, so longer than the 45min in a half, yet despite it being warmer in my office than on most of the pitches (roof closed), I don’t seem to be getting those hydration breaks myself… I have to wait for the next hourly break. And, by looking at what has happened when you do, you can can see why this is.
Every time the match pauses, even for a quick glass of water the game changes. It may have been in mid flow, building in excitement, getting ready to score, yet it stops and the break seemingly resets the teams… and once it stops it takes a while to get back up to speed.
We would see exactly the same pattern back in the office. In a meeting, engaging discussion, ideas bouncing around and you are making really great progress…. but then the phone rings, someone or something interrupts you and everything stops. They you go, hurtling back to stumbling around trying to find momentum again… the heat has left the room, it has broken the flow.
It is a bit old fashioned I know… but it is important to make a cup of tea between meetings not during!
At its essence this is about flow… when in flow, time seems to fly, things get done, stuff gets shipped… once out of flow, everything is harder and getting back… that is an even harder struggle, often you have to restart the whole process again.
In our multi-tasking world it feels this is becoming ever more common… notifications, emails, WhatsApp messages, news headlines, even world cup scores they are all coming at us think and fast. Everything is trying to grab our attention, to distracting us from what we are doing, and get us to do what they want… now.
… And, with AI tools I am starting to find this making things even worse…. everything these days seems to need some micro-attention just to keep things ticking along… net result… progress slows.
Now I would never argue to not have a break for a cup of tea and a biscuit, but just like in the football, it feels like it is something we need to go back to deliberately planning for, so we have some uninterrupted time to play the game. Breaks that genuinely refresh… not manufactured or imposed ones, so something else can get done.
This is of course the same in the office, off and on the pitch… we will all be more focused and feel more rewarded as a result or our efforts.
So as the temperature rises this week… something to kind in mind… and not too much “hydration” during the matches this week….. have a great week, everyone.
