Got my notepad ready my sunglasses, my favorite pen and my headphones. It's Wednesday afternoon, and I'm planning on spending it in the garden away from my computer.

This episode is for you if you feel like you're always busy, but never get enough done, if you wonder how to have a bigger impact in your company or in your business, and if you feel burnout, and have trouble coming up with creative ideas.

Hi there. I'm Hannah, host of the well balanced success podcast. In this weekly podcast, we explore how you can have it all how you can have a successful career, an active social life, a thriving love and family life, all of that while being healthy and happy. Now, if that sounds like something you would like, then keep on listening.

If you never slow down to look at the map, how do you know you're going in the right direction. And Episode Five, I already shared with you how I take time to plan out my month. And in this episode, I want to go a little bit deeper.

Because recently, a friend pointed out that I'm not working a lot. And I have to say I agree if you see working as spending time being busy or acting busy. In that case, I don't work that much. Because I take a lot of time to sink. I also believe that it is the most important thing that I can do, and that it is the highest value thing that I can do. And I truly believe that that's the same for you, too. If you give me six hours to cut a tree, I'll spend four sharpening my axe. Apparently Abraham Lincoln said that. And I think there is a lot of truth in the saying, because he was basically thinking about what the highest value thing was that he could do with his time to get the best result. And now I ask you, what is the highest value thing that you could be doing? What is the thing that would have the biggest impact? Now the truth is, you probably can't answer that in five minutes, you need that thinking time to make sure that you know what that highest valuable thing is.

Now, unfortunately, it's not really socially accepted to be reading a book in the office or not working and just being like, Hey, guys, I'm thinking right now. But the advantage of thinking is that you don't have to be doing it very publicly, you can always open your emails and sit at your desk, and then use that time to think I challenge you to set aside one hour and to think about what takes up most of your time, and how you can improve that thing. And what is the highest value thing that you should be working on? If you spent just one hour thinking through these two questions, I can assure you that the rest of your day will be so much more productive, that you easily make up for that one hour.

 Now, let me be very, very clear. When I say thinking time, I mean thinking time, I don't mean browsing on the internet, being on social media, checking your Instagram, your Facebook, YouTube, or whatever you do to waste time thinking time is you with your notepad or maybe with your favorite tool on your computer to answer these questions, but it is not wasting time and procrastinating with other things to do. Now also, this doesn't only work for work. This also works for any other area in your life that you want to improve. Set aside one hour and think about how to improve your relationship. I'm sure that you would get good results.

Of course, if then you act on the things that you're thought about. Now, this might sound super simple, and it is it really is simple. But it is not easy to do. Because it is super easy to get caught up in the weeds to feel like you don't have time to do this. It is the first thing to go when because it doesn't feel like you're actually doing something. And we're all collectively so we're addicted to this idea of doing something that we don't value the mental doing enough and that we don't value this thinking enough.

Now it's also not easy. Because you actually do need the headspace. So quite literally, you need the space in your head to be productive at your thinking time, which is why you have to plan this in, and you have to make it a priority. Because if you don't plan it in, and if you don't make it a priority, you will be too tired to drained, no headspace at all for doing this deep work. And at that point, thinking time is just not gonna happen.

Now, if by now you are convinced that you could use some of this thinking time and that this would improve your your work your life, then you can find more questions to ponder about if you listen to Episode Five, because there I share some of my favorite thought provoking questions that I use on a regular basis to go through this thinking time, because I'm pretty sure I have you start doing this. You will get addicted to it just like I am addicted to it and you will find the time and you will make the time to do this.

Now I would love to hear from you. Do you take the time? Do you set aside time just to think or do you feel like that is not necessary and you prefer doing real work? Come on over to well balanced success.com and let me know in the comments how you feel about thinking time. Thank you so much for listening and talk to you soon.