The Importance of Self-Reflection: 5 Ways to Do it Better
Those who live in the United States of America work way too many hours. And if you don’t believe me, check this out:
There are at least 134 countries that set a maximum number of hours that employees are allowed to work and place a limit on the number of overtime hours an employee is required to work per week…the U.S. is not one of them. 2
The average workweek for U.S. full-time employees is 47 hours which is almost an extra full day of work each week. 4
Almost 10 million Americans work more than 60 hours. 3
In fact, Americans on average work 137 more hours than the Japanese, who are seen as chronically overworked. 4
Speaking of the Japanese, did you know that they have a word for dying from overwork? Yup, it’s “karoshi” – so you can impress your friends with that little nugget of knowledge! Sadly, back in 2015, the Japanese government certified that 189 of its citizens passed away from karoshi, although some experts say the number was in the thousands.
Part of the problem with all that working is that we don’t take time for self-reflection or thinking. And without taking time for self-reflection, we are running around like chickens with our heads cut off, which amongst other things inhibits our learning.
As Bradley Staats says in Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive,
“The good news is that in most cases, working too long or without thinking doesn’t have fatal consequences. The bad news is that an action bias, whereby we think we need to be always on, seriously hampers our learning.” 1
However, by understanding the importance of self-reflection and recharging our batteries, we can get away from that always-on mentally to both learn better and be more effective in our lives.
Which is the topic of today’s blog post, the importance of self-reflection and some strategies we can utilize for better self-reflection.
Why We Need to Think Slow…
As Staats points out, “…thinking about what is occurring around us created knowledge that undergirds learning.” 1
“But don’t you learn by doing as well?”, you ask.
There is no doubt about it! According to Staats there two systems that are at work when we learn.
“The first is a rapid-fire experiential system, typically automatic and unconscious. When we’ve learned what to do in a given situation—how to calm an irate client, for example—we engage that routine, not stopping to think whether it actually fits the current situation. The second system is a slow, conscious, and controlled approach to processing information.” 1
You can think of it like this – the first system is the one that follows the rules which we have created, and the second system is the one that creates those rules.
Two Benefits of Reflection in Learning
Using the second system shows two benefits related to the importance of self-reflection:
(1) Taking time for self-reflection gives us time to figure out what we know but have not taken the time to fully understand. It also gives us time to make connections between new ideas and to identify strategies to fill in those gaps in our knowledge.
(2) It helps us build self-efficacy: in other words, by reflecting on what we do know we often realize we know more than we do. And as we pointed out in a previous post, mastery is a key element of intrinsic motivation.
What Stops Us from Reflecting?
Despite the fact that the case for self-reflection is simple yet powerful, many of us still fail to make the time for it. Why is that? Part of it is that many of us wear busyness as a badge of honor and use the fact that we are working as a measure of status.
Staats provides four other reasons that we don’t take the time for self-reflection that we should:
(1) Regret or disappointment
The first one has us feeling guilty about spending time on the wrong things. So if we are simply doing nothing but taking time to think and self-reflect we may feel guilty later that we wasted our time with nothing to show for it.
(2) Confusing action with progress
According to Staats, “When it comes to learning, we frequently and incorrectly, view action and progress as synonymous. Decoupling the two is necessary to overcome the action bias.” 1
(3) Underestimating the resulting cost
In other words, we don’t understand that overworking and not taking time to reflect can have a negative impact on our performance. And not only does it impede our performance, but it may also change how we approach tasks themselves. For example, Staats showed a study related to busy health care workers who when faced with a problem chose a quick workaround instead of trying to find the root cause of a problem.
(4) Underestimating the gains from self-reflection
Lastly, most of us are skeptical when it comes to estimating the gains from self-reflection. We think the time spent not acting and reflecting won’t help very much.
5 Strategies for Better Self-Reflection
Let’s now review 5 of the strategies that Staats suggests so that we not only acknowledge the importance of self-reflection but make it actionable as well.
(1) Block out time for thinking
As Thomas Watson, longtime CEO of IBM once said, “We don’t get paid for working with our feet—we get paid for working with our heads.”
The problem is that most of us set aside a bunch of time for our feet in the form of rushing from task to task yet not enough for our heads.
As Staats says regarding his own career:
“Early in my career, I was advised to determine what time of day I did my best thinking and to block out multiple hours at that point for writing. For me it’s the morning, so now “Writing” starts the day in my calendar. I can’t always protect that time; sometimes important meetings or classes get in the way. But because the time is blocked out, I must actively choose to disregard it.” 1
Make it actionable:
Utilize time blocking to set aside time on your calendar for self-reflection
As a leader encourage your employees to block time for self-reflection and then make sure you respect that time.
According to Daniel Pink, there is also a best time of day to do things. There are 3 stages we all go through doing the day: peak, trough, and recovery and each is better for specific types of work. I won’t cover it here as we covered it in a previous blog post if you want to check it out.
(2) Include premortems for your most critical decisions
As Staats explains,
“In a postmortem, a medical professional examines a dead body to understand the cause of death. In a premortem, an individual or a team asks, “If it’s twelve months from now and I (or we) have failed spectacularly, what happened? This technique not only forces you to think carefully about a topic but also opens you up to the possibility that things can go wrong, and so leads to more creative ideas.” 1
Another benefit of a premortem is that you may tend to suffer less overconfidence that your ideas are foolproof.
Make it actionable:
Catalyze the learning process prior to beginning the actual work by conducting a premortem. Think through your topic carefully and brainstorm the challenges you face as well as what may go wrong.
(3) Conduct an After-Action Review (AAR)
An after-action review is a self-reflection exercise that can be conducted individually or in a group to learn from what happened to improve in the future.
Make it actionable:
As we said in a previous post, there are 4 questions that are asked during an AAR:
(1) What was supposed to happen?
(2) What actually happened?
(3) What did I/we learn?
(4) What are the actions/steps I/we can take either now or in the future to improve my/our outcome?
(4) Make sure you have a plan for taking breaks
As Staats advises:
“You need to take sufficient time to rejuvenate during the workday, between workdays, and on vacations if you are to position yourself to learn successfully.” 1
As we have discussed in a previous post on the Pomodoro technique, research has recommended taking breaks every 25, 52, or 90 minutes – depending on the situation.
Make it actionable:
Make sure you schedule regular breaks during your day.
The optimal length of time taken for a break will vary by individual. What is crucial to realize is that as your work becomes more intense, the time between breaks should be less.
Scheduling breaks is not enough, you must make sure you are recharging during your break as well! Research shows that one way to do that is incorporate movement into your breaks. One way to do this is to get up and walk around or go for a walk outside.
It is also important to make sure your time after work is restful and rejuvenating. The idea is to do things you enjoy such as exercise, sexercise, reading, chatting with friends – whatever. Oh, and make sure that you get enough sleep!
(5) Take your vacations!
Lastly, make sure to take your vacation, which is huge for rejuvenating, avoiding burnout and restoring your energy levels. Did you know that the average American gets 18 days of vacation per year but only uses 16?
Make it actionable:
Take vacations that allow you to escape – whatever that means to you. It is also important to make sure that your vacations don’t make you want to take a vacation from your vacation when you get home.
As Staats says, “Busyness by itself doesn’t lead to learning…So fight the urge to act for its own sake and instead recognize that when the going gets tough, the tough are rested, take time to recharge, and stop and think.” 1
A Public Service Announcement on Safe Self-Reflection
Now that we understand the importance of self-reflection and have learned some strategies for how to engage in better self-reflection, let’s now discuss what NOT to do.
Please, under no circumstances do I want you to engage in self-reflection while cutting vegetables with a sharp knife!
I say this because I speak from a recent experience that I had doing that exact thing and I have 5 stitches in my index finger to prove it!
Until next time, say yes to self-reflection, say no to doing it while holding a sharp knife, avoid karoshi like the plague and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
P.S. Wanna know more? Check out the entire book.
Use it or Lose It – The Importance of Self-Reflection
Now that we understand the importance of self-reflection, 5 of the strategies that we discussed to make it actionable are:
(1) Block out time for thinking.
(2) Include premortems for your most critical decisions.
(3) Conduct an After-Action Review (AAR).
(4) Make sure you have a plan for taking breaks.
(5) Take your vacations!
When to Use It
Understand the importance of self-reflection and then putting the strategies we discussed into action is important for all of us to learn better.
What Do You Think?
Do you better understand the importance of self-reflection better after reading this post? Do you currently practice some of the strategies we discussed or will you implement some of them? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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References
1 Never Stop Learning: Stay Relevant, Reinvent Yourself, and Thrive by Bradley R. Staats
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance
3 https://www.thenation.com/article/americans-work-too-much-already/
4 https://bluewatercredit.com/americans-now-working-hours-country-world/
It is important to reflect on many facets of our life. It can involve our job, our home life, social life, health etc. I find it helpful when I encounter a problem. If I sit and think about it , I can often figure it out. Sometimes, it doesn’t take long and other times I need to sleep on it before the solution comes to me. Thanks Rick
Hi Eileen, There is no doubt that reflection is huge and we need to make time for it. And like you say if we sit and think about it often times we can figure it out. There’s a reason that Warren Buffett spends most of his time reading and thinking! Be good, Rick