Here’s How Time Alone Helps Your Career

I’ve coached hundreds of professional women since I started my business in 2007. The vast majority of these women are super busy, often juggling a challenging career and personal time. There is never enough time! Can you relate? I’m sure you are probably stretched too thin as well. So the last thing you think you should do when you’re overwhelmed is carve out time alone, quiet time. Yet this is precisely the time you need to do this.

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At work, your schedule is jam packed with meetings most of the day, right? It’s a treat when you are able to have lunch somewhere other than your desk. And then there are people constantly popping by your office unexpectedly taking up more time. And though you’re more than happy to help (most of the time), it’s another example of how your time is not your own.

Next there’s your to-do list. Why can’t we ever seem to cross off everything on the list? More tasks get assigned regularly or we foolishly volunteer for things because we think it will help us get ahead when in reality, it ends up being busy work. Now we have the company-wide picnic to organize on top of our normal workload.

I’m exhausted just writing this!

If you were to write down everything you do in just one day, I’m sure the list would be daunting. Yet we do it. We do it at least five days a week, perhaps more. Certainly, our health suffers from the stress of our workload or our need for perfection. Regardless, the stress is real.

Despite all this, despite the fact that you are working really hard and performing very well, you career suffers if you don’t take time for yourself, quiet time to think.

First of all, you run the risk of falling into what I call the Doer Trap. In your company, as a doer, you gain the reputation as someone who gets things done; the go to person. And though you may take some pride in this title, the go to person is never viewed as a leader. This is a trap that many women fall into because they believe the more they do, the better positioned they are for advancement when, in fact, it has the opposite effect. You want to demonstrate your leadership potential not your capacity to complete lots of tasks, and your leadership can best develop with quiet time to think strategically.

Read the full article on Fairygodboss.com.