Less reactive

I recently had a very interesting one-hour conversation where we examined the wins and losses of the past six months.

Towards the end, the word haphazard was thrown in to describe the perception of the actions I took in certain scenarios. It was a description of the job, not the person. A description of the actions.

The remote office I hold is several thousand miles from the physical location where most employees are, especially the leadership who make meticulous decisions beneficial for the organization.

Several thousand miles away from that location, I find myself guessing situations; I hear a sentence or two or an expression here and there, and then, as I think is normal, my brain starts to make connections and create a story.

I like the idea that, as a group of people, we all move together, and I also appreciate the trust given to me by the organization.

Working mostly by myself during my Ph.D. is vastly different from what I do know, where multiple people at different levels of leadership need to align to determine a course of action. It is fun to experience.

While in my Ph.D. I was in total control of the flow and the moments of pause to put things together and make the best decision.

Now that I am far from the organization's buzz, the time to pause stretches far longer to the point where it feels uncomfortable. During the Ph.D., I paused for a few seconds or minutes to asses the next experimental step. Now at the organization, the pause can stretch for days. The Ph.D. habits made it so that I would be nervous by having a long pause, but I do like the idea of extending the pause.

I recently read in Anatomy of a Breakthrough a full chapter dedicated to the pause and that the pause is the edge advantage. In a similar fashion as when I found in Ericsson's book peak performance that the most talented students in deliberate practice were the ones who nap 1 hour more during the afternoon.