Making time for SPARKs
Thanks for reading Pluck! Today, we’re talking about taking time out for the big picture when you’re drowning in the day-to-day.
I spent last week attending the virtual Executive Communications Summit, hosted by my good friends at the Executive Communications Council. It was a welcome break from my day-to-day—a chance to learn from my peers and focus on ways to improve my own craft.
This kind of focus can be hard to come by when you’re a communicator. Between constant meetings, constant demands on your attention, and constant fires to put out, professional development is often one of the first things to fall by the wayside.
Yet that’s the very thing communicators need to be great at their jobs.
How can you create thought leadership if you’re not reading new books, talking to new people, and engaging with new ideas?
How can you understand the world your words will live in if you don’t pick up your head to listen?
How can you craft unexpected insights if you’re not consistently learning and feeding your own curiosity?
Put simply: you can’t.
I first came up with the idea for SPARK Time when I was working with an executive who was drowning in meetings and had no bandwidth for the kind of big-picture thinking they had built their career on. They were constantly lamenting: I just need time to think!
So I worked with their Chief of Staff and assistant to find some—blocking out regular chunks in their schedule that could be devoted to research, writing, and consulting with peers. As much as reasonably possible, we treated SPARK Time as sacrosanct—as important as any other appointment on the calendar.
SPARK Time was originally just a catchphrase I used to sell the idea of what Cal Newport has coined deep work: “It’s time you’ll use to ✨spark✨ new ideas!” But once I started FEARLESScomms, I came up with a full framework to make sure I was spending enough time working on my business, and not just in my business.
Here are the SPARK rules I’m currently living by:
Speak with someone who inspires you.
These shouldn’t feel like your typical meetings. Reconnect with a favorite former colleague. Catch up with someone you clicked with at a conference. Reach out to a current or potential mentor. These are the conversations that will fill you up and leave you bursting with fresh ideas and renewed energy.
Plan ahead.
Goal setting doesn’t have to be confined to January. Break big ambitions into smaller, more achievable tasks—and make concrete plans for when you will tackle them. You may overestimate how much you can achieve in a day, but you will consistently underestimate how much you can achieve in a year.
Audit what’s working—and what’s not.
It’s way too easy to get stuck in auto-pilot mode. Take stock of how your processes are working and where your time is going. What should you start, stop, and keep doing? What can or should be delegated? What needs more of your attention? Asking these questions will keep you honest and accountable.
Read something interesting.
Know that browser window with dozens of open tabs, filled with articles you (someday!) intend to read? Or that book that has been languishing on your nightstand? Time to put a dent in it. Better still, jot down a note when you learn something or come across a great quote—you just might SPARK on it later.
Kindle a passion project.
There will never be a “right time” to start that big, scary project that lives in the back of your mind. So just… decide to start. Take it a half hour at a time. Research, make a call, write a few paragraphs. You will be surprised by how much a half hour can produce if you consistently take that half hour.
This year alone, SPARK Time has helped me move more than a half-dozen professional development books from my to-read to my read list, including: Atomic Habits, Designing Your Life, The Thought Leaders Practice, 1000 Words, Smarter Faster Better, and yes, Deep Work. It helped me launch a mastermind with a fellow group of entrepreneurs and start a rebranding project for my business. It even helped me create this very newsletter.
When your plate is already full, it might feel like SPARK Time is a luxury you can’t afford. I’d argue you can’t afford not to.
Day-to-day work will almost always expand to fill however much time you give it. If you don’t claw some back for yourself and your own big picture, you’ll miss out on too many opportunities to develop your skills, expand your mind, and create new ideas. That’s a bummer for you, the people you work with, and the world around you. We need your SPARKs.
Pluck: A Newsletter for Fearless Communicators is produced by Justine Adelizzi, an award-winning speechwriter and communications leader. She is the founder of FEARLESScomms, a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to creating fearless communicators.