Easy to apply reflection tools or habits you should work to develop

Don’t book back-to-back-to-back meetings

This is a big one, we’re all human and we tend to live in the moment. This is an evolutionary hangover, as those not focused on the now, and therefore survival, often didn’t contribute back in the gene-pool.

For those involved in strategically significant projects, ensure that you block out a small window of time after to reflect and take your own notes.

Reflect on the good as well as the bad

We tend to only reflect on the bad things (or dwell on them) but there is a lot to gain by also critically reflecting on yourself and those around us in positive outcomes too.

There’s a book called Strength Finder, which is worth a read, but the premise of the book is that the value we can gain through working on our strengths far outweighs the value to be gained by “fixing weaknesses”. I have found this to be very true from my experiences as well but in the context of reflection this suggests that we should also reflect on the good as well as the bad and ugly.

Reflection is time critical

The benefits of reflection are affected by the time in which it is conducted. There is little point reflecting on something that occurred a month ago, or a year ago; in fact, I would argue that this is dwelling, not reflecting.

The simple truth is the closer to the “action” you conduct your reflection the more you will get out of it.