Harvard Business Publishing

Great post, thank you for sharing. I currently allocate 2 hours per week on Friday's to do my weekly review to ensure my "Getting Things Done" system is tuned. I'm considering adding a 2nd meeting for more of a reflection.

Mark

Mark

That's a great idea - two hours to review tasks and two hours on reflection. I wish all my clients would do this!

I'm sure you'll find it's time well spent - creating space in our lives is an important discipline when so much crowds our lives. Let me know how you get on!

Gill

I've taken your advice and scheduled two hours for every Thursday after lunch for this. I especially like the file idea - always need this kind of reminder come end of year assessments. I'll let you know how this goes.

Interesting: it's a good reminder to everyone. Yet this meeting with ourself, through my experience, doesn't has to be put off at the end of the week. We live a such crazy period of time that makes mandatory our responsiveness to any event. Learning, reflecting, and ajusting is a day-to-day behaviour. One has to insulate himself from time to time - even during 5-10mn - and try to check whether he still has the big picture in regard to the events he is experiencing. That's the best way to make the flexibility an asset, in the face of the uncertainties that became a key variable of our professions.

Great Insight. A few people take the time to do this but tell what; It builds your ability to lead as you ponder on your strength and weakness.

My secret: I started having such meetings even before I got my first Job and now learning to perfect the art so that my team and those who interact with me tell the difference between being proactive and firefighting type of management.

I will encourage you to try it out if you haven't. start simple like for 30minutes, i.e. Three hours before you leave the office. This time your experiences are still fresh and alive.

While it is often easiest to "conduct" this meeting sitting down, I have learned that I do my best thinking on my feet. So I stand and pace and jot down ideas on cards OR on my blackbarry MemoPad (please be careful not to run into anyone or anything!) or dictate to blackberry Voice Notes and work thru 'stuff' -before I sit down to summarize and catalogue my musings. Works for me - not sure it will work for everyone.

That is a great idea. Like most people I spend a lot of time thinking about mywork, what I have achieved, where I could do better and how I am interacting with colleagues. But it has always been random, a few minutes here and there, usually after work. I really like the concept of making it a formal meeting with myself, like any important meeting at work. I don't think it has to be long but I think it is important to make notes so that you can track developments. Thanks for the idea, Gill.

It is a great way to know oneself and to know if one is on right track. I schedule frequent meetings with myself and try to analyze where I did great and where I fine, it also help me to understand myself.

I would definitly suggest to take out some time from busy schedules.

Very good article!!

I had my first meeting with myself today. I took your advice and made notes during the week about discussions and meetings, how they had gone and what I could have done better. I jotted down random ideas, stuff about colleagues and what I thought about them, and what they made of me. Today I arranged to meet myself. I felt a bit self indulgent but I found the experience really rewarding. I went through everything. I saw I had made some mistakes, maybe misjudged a few situations and people. I thought about medium term goals. Like anything new it will take time to get used to this. I intend to meet myself again next week. This meeting is going to be in my diary every week. Thanks for suggesting it. Everyone should make make time for it, no matter how busy they are.

I was struggling to find time in my week to both fit in exercise and also time to reflect on where I am generally.

I put 2 specific times in my diary, repeated every week. Each of these I used to go for a 30 minute run during which I was able to really have time to reflect. It is amazing how the mind can come up with answers to problems or to just help understand things from a different angle.

It's been a great help.

Chris
http://learn2develop.blogspot.com

What a great idea. For years, I've not made New Year's resolutions; rather I've spent some quality time reflecting on what I learned and accomplished the past year.
Once that is done, it's time to consider what next steps I'd like to take. It can be anything that is a bit daring and unexpected. I write it down in long hand somewhere so that I can move it from short term to mid term memory and make that personal commitment more accessible as the year speeds up.
I've found that at this simple committment has taken me to some interesting places. I accept the meeting challenge and look forward to adding a bit more discipline to the growth and innovation process this year.

Gill, a great idea as others have said. Do people think anything is OK in this meeting with yourself? I have had two with myself and found myself wandering between work and personal stuff. I know the two are inter-related but do people think it is best to try and divide them? We all have responsibilities that limit our freedom. Most of us are not living 'the dream.' Many are not 100 per cent satisfied. Is stuff like this off limits? Thanks Gill for giving your readers the opportunity to ask some tough questions of ourselves.

I am fortunate to work for a boss who practices this himself and expects his employees to do so as well. We are expected to take one day a month away from the office for a day of personal reflection, research, planning, etc. I have been using this day for the last year and it has proven to be invaluable.

Its really really great. Seven people before my post have termed it as greatand i am 8th person to do that. I just liked that.

This is a great idea. I set aside time to organize and plan when I start to feel overwhelmed. I like the idea of having a standing meeting because it's more proactive and may help in keeping my stress level down.

Away on a business trip, I was just thinking about how productive I am being in terms of getting so many things about my life in perspective. Your post made me realise that I am actually having that "meeting with myself" - and it works. Now, the challenge is to not just do it when I have the time, like when I travel and do not have the daily distractions of office and home, but to consciously set a regular, non-negotiable time for it.

I am an avid goal setter - this advice provides the regular, consistent link between my goals, action and results! Thanks!!

Excellent article. I always did this in my unorganised way, but I can see how this can be useful to capture all of those thoughts so you don't forget. This information is also then useful for you interim and yearend reviewes (be it for yourself or your team members).

Really a fantastic one. It coincides with the spiritual teachings in Vedanta. You can find out what went well and what went wrong and fix it.

For more than a year now, I've used a tickler system that prompts me with this question every Monday: "Is there anything I'm not paying attention to that I should?" Every few weeks, this practice points me to something that I need to face up to -- a conversation I need to have, a question I need to ask someone, a project that has slipped, a risk that has come into view that needs to be analyzed. I started this after two things happened in short order that in retrospect I knew had been in the back of my mind as potential problems, but which I hadn't brought to the forefront to deal with.

I like the idea of making notes throughout the week and then reflecting on them in a meeting with myself. Thanks for putting it out there!

Great idea. Coincidentally, started doing this ~2 weeks ago taking the cue of a colleague. Stop at a coffee shop Weds AM on the way to the office to organize remaining work for the week, catch up on items from first two days, etc. Adding a component of self-reflection on specific activities, events, interactions etc sounds like a good idea. Being out of office prevents interruptions and tendency we all have to dive into email...

Great idea. It is a better way of putting all the things that happened during the week in perspectives. While I often remember the things that I could have done better, I find it difficult to give myself some credits on the things that I have done well. Starting next week, I will devote sometime to meet with myself, pat myself on the back for my accomplishments and pursue those opportunities for improvement. Thank you for the post!

Gill - I LOVE the sense of importance that you give to this. Because how can we lead without self-awareness? And how can we be self-aware if we don't take time to know ourselves? Please keep your great insights coming. Silvana

I never realized until this aticle that I have started something called "meeting with myself". Randomly, I would go to the church in our campus and just sit and reflect on the things that has happened, analyse my decisions, reactions of those affected, result of the decision and so on... I have also been doing a journal and just write my reflections during this time. Now I am going start and come up with a specific time and day to do this and see where it will take me. Thanks Gill.

Hi Gill,
This is a nice article.
It is like taking stock or in asetcal struggle in building one's spiritual life, an examination of conseience.
I will start it immediately.
Okpara Joe

As we are continually being asked to do more with less, I have "one-on-ones" with myself at the end of each week; not only to reflect on the past week, re-prioritize tasks and re-organize my workspace, but also to take the time to send a quick note of appreciation or thanks to those internal and external customers who have lent their support during the week.

I’m about to go into my first meeting with myself. But before I do, I wanted to suggest Google Notebook and Evernote for making notes of ‘critical incidents.’ Google said they’re going to stop developing Notebook, though I’m not sure when that will happen and what it means for new users.