Though we spend a lot of time and energy on future-oriented goals, we can also benefit from reflecting back.
As professionals, our lives tend to be ever-focused on the future, on planning, dreaming, and scheming. And while this is not inherently negative, it is important to slow down occasionally and take stock of what is behind us. After all, entire weeks can pass in a flash, and in a society that prizes hyper-productivity, it is all too common to look up, stunned, weeks later and realize, “I have no idea what I’ve even been doing with my time.”
Socrates is credited with saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” While this may sound unduly harsh, there is a weighty truth in the knowledge that without ever taking time to reflect, we may never seize opportunities to grow or develop. What if we shifted our focus, then, to the retrospective rather than the prospective? How would that impact our performance, productivity, and satisfaction with our work?
A 2014 Harvard Business School study indicates that taking time to reflect on our work improves our job performance in the long-term. According to Professor Francesca Gino, one of the authors of the study, “Now more than ever we seem to be living lives where we’re busy and overworked, and our research shows that if we’d take some time out for reflection we might be better off.” She goes on to say that when we “stop, reflect, and think about learning, we feel a greater sense of self-efficacy,” experience increased motivation, and “perform better.”
The report was based on a series of studies. For the first study, 202 adults gathered for an online experiment to complete a series of problem-solving exercises. Participants earned one dollar for each puzzle solved in twenty seconds or less. The control group completed a second round of puzzles with no additional parameters, but two other groups—a “sharing” group and a “reflection” group—were given explicit instructions to reflect on their first round of puzzles and take notes about their strategies. The sharing group was informed that their notes would be shared with future participants.
The results were telling: they revealed that the “reflection” and “sharing” groups performed an average of eighteen percent better on the second round of exercises than the control group. However, there was not a significant performance difference between the sharing and reflection groups.
What the study seems to show is that taking the time to stop, think, and process is especially meaningful, whether the results are shared or not. Professor Gino expressed that organizations can, and should, encourage employees to take time to reflect on their performances. “I don’t see a lot of organizations that actually encourage employees to reflect—or give them time to do it,” she explains. “When we fall behind even though we’re working hard, our response is often just to work harder. But in terms of working smarter, our research suggests that we should take time for reflection.”
Even if our workplaces do not build in that time for us, we can—and should—do that for ourselves.
At the end of your week, take stock of your progress in a few key areas. To get you started, here are a few items to consider.
01. Time management
Take a few minutes to look back at your week and assess how you managed your time. Did you use your working hours optimally? Did you waste any time, and if so, how might you avoid doing so in the future? Where can you improve your efficiency? If you track your time, how did you do? What are the areas you can streamline and improve? Is there any “fringe” time—e.g., ten minutes in between calls or meetings—that you can use better?
02. Relationships
Consider if—and how—you cultivated relationships with your colleagues this past week. What conversations stand out, either in a positive or a negative way? Are there areas for improvement with your relationship with your boss, colleagues, or team members? What can you do in the coming weeks to build a sense of camaraderie with your co-workers? If you are working remotely, are there ways you can connect with your colleagues even from a distance?
03. Self-care
It is common to start the week on a high note, only to find your energy sagging and spirits plummeting by Wednesday afternoon. Take a look at your mood and energy trajectories throughout the week and take note of how you felt. If you experienced a dip in energy, what practices or habits may have been responsible for that? Did you slack on your healthy eating and exercise goals? Stay up too late? Welcome too many technology-related distractions into your day? Then, consider what you can do the next week to cultivate and continue healthy habits, whether through a Wednesday self-care night, an earlier bedtime, or a Sunday meal prep session to ensure you have healthy food available all week.
04. Accomplishments
Take out a sheet of paper and jot down all of your accomplishments from the past week. These can be as small as making headway on a project or as large as landing a new client or sales opportunity for your company. Then, consider what led you to these accomplishments and what specific factors came together to make them happen.
05. Challenges
In a similar way, note any roadblocks you hit this week. What caused those challenges? How did you handle them? What can you do differently in the future should you face them again?
