Do This 1 Thing for Your Business Creativity in 2024
Last week, I was working through annual planning with a client. Actually, we’d already completed her annual plan; but we were working on the important part (that most people neglect): scheduling the plan over the year. I asked her what she saw as risks to the plan. She replied: “Distraction? Burnout?”
In 2023 she did have some burnout pits: a result of going too hard and too long. So I offered: we can get smarter about this in 2024. Let’s make a burnout prevention plan. Said differently: schedule space for business creativity.
Here’s what Tech-CEO Coach Matt Mochary has to say on the matter:
All CEOs need mental rest. And all of them need to be creative to envision (and document) the future of their product or service.
So, how do you get mental rest and become creative while also working 14 hours a day?
The answer is: find ways to get bored. Small ways and big ways.
We are naturally in a mentally restorative and creative state until we introduce distractions. And modern life is nothing but distractions, both work and pleasure. On the work side: responding to messages, being in meetings, etc. On the pleasure side: watching videos or social media posts. All give us small hits of adrenaline, which temporarily feel good. But they also put our brains in alert status (amygdala) to see what comes next, with no capacity for creative thought. And the constant adrenaline doesn’t allow our minds to rest and restore.
When we remove these distractions, we at first feel bored (for some people this feeling is almost unbearable). But if we allow ourselves to sit with this state and simply let it be, then eventually we start to feel a sense of mental relaxation. And then our creative thoughts begin to flow.
Though it sounds simple and maybe (too) optimistic, it can be done. But it takes a proactive plan. When it comes to rest, you can’t wait until it’s too late. And if you’re burned out, it’s too late. It’s so hard to break the cycle.
Here’s my suggestion: schedule your 2024 restoration and creativity time now. For this client, we agreed to pre-schedule 2 weeks: one in January before the world gets back to work (no one in our corner of the Universe starts work with full rigor on January 2nd!) and one in June. In fact, she’s already been looking at a meditation retreat for January and an overseas artists’ residence in June. But please: don’t let these ideas intimidate you. Work within your means. It can be a local Airbnb to create and work on your business. Keep things simple. But make the plan, schedule the time away, get your day-to-day work done before and after, then stick to it the plan.
I admit for me, as well: I’ve been too in the Ellevated Outcomes operation in 2023. I need to keep the discipline for space so that I can create, plan, and stay steadfast in pursuit of Ellevated Outcomes’ vision. My 2024 plan is to take one week outside the business to study, plan, and create. And you guessed it: it’s already scheduled on my calendar.
I challenge you to do the same in 2024 for your highest business creativity.
PS – Ever wonder how we got Internet Explorer? It was from one of Bill Gates’ infamous Think Weeks: the precise idea we’re describing here…
