If you're a leader, you need time to think, like just think, because it's all too easy to miss the forest for the trees. The day to day work in any organization is relentless. As soon as one problem is solved, two more take its place. Thinking quick, being adaptable, and staying calm at all critical parts of being a leader. But sometimes you need to take a step back. Level's co founder and CEO, Sam caucas believes a leader needs to really take a step back, sometimes even for a
whole week. So every quarter Sam goes remote and escapes for a think week. So what exactly happens on a think week and how does Sam structure it? And for Sam, what's been the payoff. My name is doctor Amantha Imba, and I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium. And this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's my Favorite Tip episode where you go back to an interview from the past and I pick out
my favorite tip from the interview. In today's show, I speak with Sam about his quarterly think week.
It's something that I highly recommend to anyone in a strategic role. Every quarter, I take a week I would say off grid, but not necessarily without access to internet or whatnot. I actually really like having access to internet for me. I will often spend a lot of that time reading and reflecting and writing. I do a lot of writing. I'll often come out of one of these think weeks with fifty to one hundred page is of writing on company strategy or personal reflections or writing of
content pieces. I find writing to be a really, a really satisfying activity, and so it is usually during these think weeks that I come up with some of my best ideas because it's I don't take any meetings, I don't take any calls. I really just focus as much
as I can on the big picture. So a lot of my best ideas have come from taking time away from the day to day, when you can think more holistically about your company and what the goals are, and what the trajectory is, and what the hiring plan is. I find that if I'm in the day to day, it's really easy to miss the forest for the trees. So yeah, I usually take I usually do it somewhere that's slightly remote, be it Joshua Tree or Yosemite, but so relatively accessible, and.
Like, how do you structure the wake? Are the questions or tasks or things that you bring into guide you?
Yeah, definitely. One of the consequences of keeping such a rigorous calendar is I actually I have my next think week planned, and I already have all of the days blocked off for the things that I'll be working on those weeks. As ideas come up and I realize that I am not going to have time to rethink the primary business model of the company, I'll jump ahead to my next think week in my calendar and block off
a whole day to just think about business model. Or if it's for something completely unrelated, something like a personal thing that I want to reflect on, I can block off a wholiday for that. So I would say that it's they're usually mostly structured in advance of even getting there.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about Sam's Thinkweek, and maybe you're thinking about starting your own thinkweek, and if you are, after some more things to think about. Every fortnight I write in the newsletter call three cool things, and that's exactly what it covers, three cool things that I have learned about. It might be you gadgets or software, interesting research, or maybe a thought provoking article. So if you would like to get more stuff from me, you can sign
up at howiwork dot co. Howiwork dot co. There's also a link in the show notes if you would like some more thought provoking things from myself. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from dead Set Studios, and thank you to Martin Nimber who does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything sound awesome. See you next time.