Why pressing pause is crucial for personal effectiveness
Samuel Johnson, that great 18th century wit, stood by his claim that the happiest part of your life is that which you spend “lying awake in bed in the morning”. At the moment, my two sons – Hugo (5 yrs) and Freddie (2.5 yrs) – ensure that my appreciation for Dr. Johnson’s sentiment is more academic than practical. All the same, I think Johnson was on to something.
Lying awake in bed in the morning (assuming you have not yet picked up your phone or been jumped on by a toddler), amounts to pressing pause before the day begins. Unpacking Dr. Johnson’s wisdom, the magic of such moments is not down to the fact that you are specifically lying in bed, or that it is the morning, but that demands on your time have not yet found you out.
In fact, pressing pause at any time of the day is good for managing stress, navigating change, and making wise decisions. This is because pressing pause allows for the creation of perspective and understanding – two things that are hard to develop at pace. But taking time out before proceeding does not always come easy. As responsibilities increase and life grows more complex, stepping off the to-do list treadmill can seem like a luxury.
But it’s not.
In the context of change, complexity and responsibility, taking time to collect and process your thoughts is not a nice to have – it’s essential.
The trick is to find effective ways of pressing pause that help you collect your thoughts and respond to life constructively. Perhaps for you, that means joining the likes of Samuel Johnson and pondering life in bed. Unable to make the most of that approach myself, here are two other ways that I press pause. I hope they help you too.
Take 5: Set a timer for 5-minutes, sit, stand or lie comfortably, and then see what comes to mind. In contrast to mindfulness techniques, this practice does not invite you to pay attention to anything in particular (e.g. your breathing). Instead, the benefit of this technique is found in the fact that you are giving yourself a few minutes without any new stimulus for your brain to process. You are actually just sitting there, pressing pause for 5 minutes. Try it out, you might be surprised by what you find.
Map your neural pathways: Begin by identifying something taking up your mental space (e.g. an item on your to-do list, a difficult conversation you need to have). Next, write that item in the centre of a piece of paper and circle it. Now, ask yourself what comes to mind when you think about that item. Drawing lines from your central item, map the words and phrases that come to mind. Then, shifting your focus to those second-order items you noted down, ask yourself what comes to mind when you think about them, and map those third-order items. Continuing in this way for as long as you like, you are effectively mapping the neural pathways in your brain. In doing so, you will likely strike on some interesting aspects to your original central item that you had not considered previously, and which can help you make sense of that item that was taking up your mental bandwidth.
In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you lie in bed or map your brain. What matters is that you find ways to press pause which work well for you. It’s not a luxury. You owe it to yourself to get off the treadmill and catch up with yourself.
Dr. Brennan Jacoby is a philosopher and the founder of Philosophy at Work, an organisation helping businesses think their best. Brennan holds a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D in philosophy, and his doctoral work analysed trust in the context of interpersonal relationships and corporate character. With Philosophy at Work, he delivers training workshops and facilitated team sessions that help equip professionals with psychological safety and cognitive confidence. Recent projects include helping Deloitte UK cultivate a growth mindset, supporting The Wellcome Trust to explore trust in healthcare, and enhancing curiosity across Sony Music. In addition to his role with Philosophy at Work, Brennan is a fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts. Originally from Detroit Michigan, he studied in Sydney, Australia and is now based in Oxford and London, UK.
Originally Released On 02 July 2020