The 15-minute midyear reflection
Taking time to reflect on your work can improve your performance more than doing more work. In a study of call center trainees at the Indian company Wipro, Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats found that people who spent the last 15 minutes of their day writing about what they'd learned performed about 23% better on a final test than people who kept working. Reflection turns experience into lessons you actually keep.
It's July. Half the year is gone.
If you're like most of my clients, your first reaction to that is a little bit of panic. Where did it go? What did I even get done? Why am I still working on the same goal I set in January?
I want to offer a different response. Before you speed up, stop for 15 minutes.
What the research found
Giada Di Stefano and her colleagues studied new employees going through technical training at Wipro, a large company in India. One group spent the last 15 minutes of each training day writing about what they'd learned and reflecting on it. Another group used those 15 minutes to keep working.
At the end of training, the reflection group did about 23% better on the final test. They had less practice time, and they still came out ahead. The 15 minutes of thinking was worth more than 15 more minutes of doing.
The researchers summed it up like this: experience alone doesn't make you better. Learning from your experience does.
Why business owners skip it
Reflection feels like a luxury. When there's a full inbox and a to-do list a mile long, sitting still and writing about what you learned feels like slacking off. So we just keep going. We repeat the same mistakes, keep the same habits that aren't working, and keep pushing on goals we might've outgrown three months ago.
Doing more without thinking just gets you more of the same.
Your midyear reflection
Set a timer for 15 minutes. Answer these in writing:
What worked in the first half of the year? What do I want more of?
What didn't work? What do I want to stop or change?
What did I learn about my business, my clients, or myself?
Which of my January goals still matters? Which ones should I let go of?
What's the one thing I want to be true by December 31?
That's it. Don't edit. Don't make it pretty. Just answer.
Make it a habit
The study used daily reflection, and you don't need a big midyear moment to get the benefit. A few minutes at the end of each day, like the wind-down in How you end your workday matters most, adds up. So does a short weekly check-in, like the 15-minute weekly review.
The midyear reflection is just a bigger zoom-out. Daily, weekly, twice a year. Each one helps you learn from what already happened instead of just reacting to what's next.
What it looks like
I walked a client through these questions last month. When she got to "What didn't work," she wrote for ten straight minutes about a marketing channel she'd been forcing for months. It brought in almost no clients and drained her every week.
She'd never stopped long enough to notice. So we dropped it that week and moved that time into referrals, which is where most of her clients came from anyway. Those fifteen minutes gave her back hours every month.
If you want someone to reflect with, and to help you turn what you learn into a plan, let's talk.
Frequently asked questions
Does reflection improve performance?
In a study of trainees at Wipro, people who spent the last 15 minutes of each day reflecting on what they learned performed about 23% better on a final test than those who kept working.
What questions should I ask in a midyear review?
Ask what worked, what didn't, what you learned, which goals still matter, and what one thing you want to accomplish by the end of the year.
How often should I reflect on my work?
Short daily or weekly reflections help, and a bigger midyear and end-of-year review lets you step back and adjust your goals.
Sources: Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. P., & Staats, B. R. (2016). Making experience count: The role of reflection in individual learning. Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 14-093.
