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Make space for your own sake Equip yourself with the tools to create ‘space’, writes Kirsten Levermore
Create Space: How to Manage Time, and Find Focus, Productivity and Success Derek Draper Published by Profile Books Complete the full audit at www. derekdraper.net
Boarding a flight a few weeks ago, a snippet of conversation between two business travellers caught my attention. “Brainstorming in the bathroom stall had to be the low point of that quarter,” said one. “I can’t wait to get on the plane and have some peace and quiet.” “Good luck with that,” their companion laughed. “I hear it has wifi now.” It’s the sort of ‘progress’ that prompts mixed feelings. It is often a real struggle to find the peace and quiet – the time and the space – that we want. In an always-on world, it’s harder to escape the hurly-burly of our day-to-day working lives. “We have become the first generation in one thousand generations of human beings who, rather than having the need to fill space, have the need to create it,” writes business psychologist Derek Draper in Create Space: How to Manage Time and Find Focus, Productivity and Stress, a recent Financial Times Business Book of the Month. Many jobs require deep thinking, ideation, planning and creativity, he notes, but most of us are drowning in noise, information and too much to do. The solution does not necessarily include a locked bathroom stall. “Modern life, particularly work, fills any space indiscriminately… A leader must therefore consciously push back and create space.”
A clear how-to guidebook
Create Space features an extensive review of leadership literature. Draper builds on French philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s belief that true space is made up of physical, mental and social states, and lays out four ‘dimensions’ of space that require our attention:
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Space to think – we have the intellectual freedom to think deeply Space to connect – we attain the emotional capacity to share and engage with others Space to do – we are able to prioritize and generate productive impact Space to be – to ensure that we build the life we truly want.
Addressing each dimension in turn with simple illustrative case studies, easily grasped theoretical models and tools and tips that can be implemented from the get-go, Draper’s book aims to equip the reader to “embrace space” for the long-run. For those who achieve it, far-reaching benefits are ripe for the taking: “Space is vital for deeper self-insight and sense of purpose, better strategic and creative thinking, richer relationships and delivering what really matters.” In this book, Draper reminds us that balance, direction, decision-making, planning, learning, and growth all require pure, unadulterated space.