Improve your effectiveness in just 15 minutes with 3 questions
[This is about a 7-minute read]
Hi Friends -
This is my first ever blog post. Truth be told, I had a hard time with it. I couldn’t find my “blog voice.” Eventually, I realized the nagging feeling that something wasn’t quite right wasn’t going to go away with my next draft. So I paused and reflected on what was going on.
Reflection was (and is) the topic I had planned to write about, so this journey feels fitting. More on that story in a bit.
Back in the present, the majority of my colleagues and clients often talk about all the meetings, emails, and tasks that take over their work days. I know this feeling from when I worked full-time in nonprofit organizations. It can be overwhelming and leave us with feelings of scarcity and tiredness.
When we are tired and feel short on time, sometimes the one thing we know would be beneficial flies out the window. Sure, it would be nice to do, but we’ll get around to it next time, we tell ourselves. And next time becomes the time after and so on.
Time for reflection falls into this category:
Is it a best practice? Yes.
Is it one of the most common things to procrastinate on and eventually let go of? Also Yes.
Yet, when I finally got into the habit of taking time to reflect, I experienced noticeable improvements in my work and I generally just felt better. This is the result of taking a lot of tiny steps over the course of time.
I care about you and the work you do and my goal is to support you while you make noticeable improvements to your own work.
This is why I wanted to share the Start/Stop/Continue framework for my first blog post. This tool is what helped me get over my reflection procrastination and into the habit of taking this time to make improvements and become more effective.
The Tool
Start/Stop/Continue consists of 3 simple prompts that help turn reflection into tangible steps for making improvements:
What could I start doing, that I haven’t been, to make improvements towards my goal?
What do I stop doing, because it’s not serving my goal?
What do I continue doing, because it’s working well?
It’s helpful to first take some time to think about what has gone well and what hasn’t. With that reflection in mind, ask yourself the start/stop/continue prompts. Come up with one idea for each prompt and turn those ideas into actionable steps. Follow through on those steps, and you’re on your way to starting to your own ripple effect of improvements!
Here’s what I most appreciate about Start/Stop/Continue reflections:
The Start/Stop/Continue prompts are self explanatory and in a pinch can be your whole “agenda”. [Meaning, if you’re short on time, it doesn’t require a lot of extra brain power to plan or know what to ask yourself.]
The prompts help turn your reflection into actions. You end up with tangible next steps for improvement so the time spent feels effective and worthy.
You don’t even need a ton of time for the exercise. A quick 15 minute session can still result in valuable improvement ideas.
It normalizes saying no, or stopping something if it’s not working. I continue to feel a burden lifting off my shoulders every time I give myself permission to stop something.
For example….
I use this framework often for my own productivity improvements. For example, I’ve found that Wednesdays are the best days for me to work on my business projects. I never would have discovered this work ritual if I hadn’t started reflecting on why I wasn’t getting my business projects done when I had planned and then began troubleshooting with different start/stop/continue improvement ideas.
This blog post is another example. Because I’m now in the habit of reflecting, I did it naturally as I was between drafts. As I mentioned at the beginning, I felt that something wasn’t quite right. I said so out loud to my partner. This triggered me to think more about it. Later, as I was watering plants and staring out the window, I started thinking about what didn’t feel right.
Q: What wasn’t going well? A: It didn’t feel like me. I didn’t like my writing voice.
Q: What are some examples of when my writing does go well? A: When I write emails to my clients. I easily find a straightforward, helpful, and playful vibe in my emails that I wasn’t finding in my blog drafts.
My action steps: Start writing my blog as if it was an email to clients. Continue my “client email persona.” Stop trying to perfect a draft - find one that feels right, go with it, learn and refine from the experience.
The result: This post! I’d love to hear what you liked and what you’d like to see next time after you finish reading this. You can always reach me at kg.consulting.20@gmail.com. I respond to every email.
Once I was triggered to reflect, this thought process took me less than 15 minutes. It unblocked my block and allowed me to finally post this blog.
Are you ready to give it a try?
Here’s a checklist to get started:
Decide what you want to reflect and improve on (Hint: it doesn’t always have to be work related. I’ve used it to improve my gardening game!)
Schedule when and where you will do it on your calendar. (Better yet, set a 15 minute timer, grab a colorful pen and paper, and give it a try now!)
Think about what’s going well and not so well.
Ask yourself the three start/stop/continue questions.
Implement your improvement ideas.
Repeat. Schedule your next reflection on your calendar.
Once you get a hang for doing this solo, this tool is also great for team reflections on process, communications, and projects.
Click this link to view my take on the Start/Stop/Continue framework. It includes different prompts for different reflection contexts.
The Practice
Continuous reflection and improvement is a practice. Here are my tips on making reflection an effective practice.
Don’t overthink it. Even 15 minutes of reflection will be invaluable - once you’ve identified at least one solid start or stop step, you’ve had success. You can muse on these questions while you are taking a walk and write down your results when you are back. Make it enjoyable and easy so you actually do it.
Plan for it and schedule it! As in, actually put it on your calendar. Include it in your work plan or project plan, whatever dictates the work you actually do.
Do it with some regularity so you get in the practice of it. Try a Start/Stop/Continue reflection once a week for yourself, or once a month for a project.
Get specific about your start and stop activities and make them manageable so you can easily take action. This may take practice. You’ll get better the more you do it.
Implement! Write down your specific action items wherever is necessary so you remember to do them. Here are a couple suggestions: Schedule them in your calendar; add them to your work plan; do them right away; sticky note your desk; start a running document to keep track of your ideas (make sure it's easily accessible and you remember you have it!).
Be curious. Every improvement step won’t pan out as you had hoped. That’s ok. Be curious about why and build from there.
Build a culture of trust and respect among your team so you can have clear, direct, honest feedback conversations about team projects. This will help your team uncover the most impactful improvement ideas.
