Every workday, I block time on my calendar to think. Not to answer email. Not to prepare for a meeting. Not to review a document. Just to think.
This sounds like such a simple practice that it barely seems worth writing about. But after years of managing technology teams, I’ve come to believe it’s one of the most important habits a leader can develop. And it’s the habit most likely to disappear when you need it most.
The Problem with Being Busy
When you lead an organization, your calendar fills itself. Meetings beget meetings. Every decision generates follow-up conversations. People need your input, your approval, your attention. Email alone can consume hours if you let it. I wrote earlier this summer about the busyness trap and how much of what we call “busy” is self-imposed. Scheduling thinking time is the practical counterpart to that observation.
The result is that you spend your entire day doing work without ever thinking about work. These are two fundamentally different activities, and confusing them is a mistake I see smart people make constantly.
Doing work means attending meetings, writing emails, reviewing plans, making decisions in the moment. Thinking about work means reflecting on what happened yesterday, identifying patterns across your organization, considering whether you’re solving the right problems, and planning what needs to happen next week or next quarter.
Both matter. But only one of them will happen without deliberate effort.
Why You Have to Schedule It
Nobody cancels your thinking time except you. And that’s the problem. When a VP needs 30 minutes to discuss a staffing decision, you don’t say “I can’t, I’m thinking.” When a meeting runs long and encroaches on your open block, it’s tempting to let it. When you sit down for your thinking time and see 40 unread messages, the pull is almost irresistible.
I’ve learned that the only reliable countermeasure is treating thinking time with the same respect you’d give a meeting with your boss. Put it on the calendar. Give it a start time and an end time. When someone tries to schedule over it, decline, just as you would if you had a conflicting commitment. Because you do.
Thirty to sixty minutes a day is enough. Some people do it first thing in the morning, before the day’s demands take over. Others prefer the end of the day, when there’s enough raw material to reflect on. The timing matters less than the consistency.
What Actually Happens During Thinking Time
When I describe this practice to people, the first question is usually “What do you actually do during that time?” It’s a fair question. We’re so accustomed to defining productivity by visible output that sitting quietly with your thoughts feels almost transgressive in a work context.
Here’s what I typically work through:
Review what happened. Not the tasks I completed, but the interactions. Did that meeting accomplish what it needed to? Did I notice tension in the room that I should follow up on? Was there a question someone asked that deserved a better answer than the one I gave?
Look for patterns. When three different teams independently raise concerns about the same process, that’s a signal. When you’re moving too fast to notice, those signals get lost. Thinking time is when the pattern recognition happens.
Plan deliberately. Not the tactical to-do list, but the strategic questions. What should I be paying attention to this week? Who haven’t I talked to in a while? What decisions are coming up that I need to start preparing for now?
Reconsider assumptions. This is perhaps the most valuable use of the time, and the one that feels least productive while you’re doing it. Am I right about the direction we’re heading? Is there something I’m not seeing? What would I tell a friend in my position?
The Guilt Factor
The instinct to feel guilty about closed-door thinking time is real, especially early on. There’s a voice that says you should be doing something visible. Answering that email. Joining that meeting you were optional on. Walking the floor.
That voice is lying to you. Or rather, it’s confusing activity with effectiveness. The most valuable thing you can do for your team is think clearly about where you’re leading them. You can’t do that in the gaps between back-to-back meetings while checking your phone.
I wrote recently about running productive meetings, and one of the themes there is respecting people’s time. The same principle applies to your own. If you don’t protect time for thinking, you’re disrespecting the work that only you can do.
The Paradox
Here’s what makes this genuinely hard: the busier you are, the more you need dedicated thinking time. And the busier you are, the less likely you are to take it.
When the pace is intense and demands are competing for your attention, thinking time feels like a luxury. It’s not. It’s the thing that helps you identify priorities and set direction. Reacting to each demand as it arrives without stepping back to see the larger picture is how organizations lose their way.
A colleague once shared a memo on leadership qualities that emphasized listening and getting to know your team. Those are fundamentally reflective practices. You can’t listen well if your mind is already racing to the next task. You can’t understand what your team needs if you never sit still long enough to process what they’ve told you.
The Practice
It is critically important to schedule some time every workday to think, learn from past experiences, and plan ahead. This is a time separate from the times when you are in meetings, when you are on the computer, or when you are doing other work. If you don’t reflect, learn, and plan ahead, your work won’t be as productive, effective, and fulfilling.
I realize that paragraph reads almost like a manifesto. But I mean every word of it. The practice is simple. The discipline required to maintain it is not. Start tomorrow. Block 30 minutes. Protect that time. See what happens after two weeks.
You’ll wonder how you ever worked without it.