Fight for Space Why Every Leader Needs Micro, Medium, and Macro Breaks

·16 min·1 clip

Alan Briggs reveals three specific types of space every leader must fight for in a real schedule.

The episode opens with host Jonathan Collier introducing the format: showcasing two segments from Alan Briggs's monthly 'Taking Steps' email. The first segment focuses on three types of space leaders need. Alan begins by diagnosing a common leadership problem: feeling constantly behind and stressed due to poor time framing. He asserts space must be fought for, not waited for. He defines micro space as daily pauses, like a five-minute patio sit or a walk. Medium space includes a weekly Sabbath day for delight and a quarterly 'think day' for deep work on three to five big topics. Alan shares his personal think day routine: eight hours offline in coffee shops, using a journal, costing about ten dollars. He reports gaining extreme clarity from this practice. Macro space involves planned vacations and sabbaticals, noting a spike in business attention to sabbaticals. Alan argues leadership is inherently creative and requires space for good decisions. He warns that overscheduled leaders live reactively in 'the shallows,' like email inboxes, instead of planning future projects. The episode contrasts this with the need for 'deep work.' It concludes by prompting listeners to identify which type of space they most need and to schedule a think day, especially before summer. Jonathan closes with calls to action for the email list and podcast reviews.

As heard by us

A clear case for protected leadership space, from a single think day to longer rhythms of rest and focus.

Alan Briggs frames leadership space as a calendar problem, not an abstract virtue. The episode works best when it makes that idea concrete: a leader stepping away to a park bench for six or eight hours, journal in hand, with three to five major questions on the table, from…

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Why you'd press play

Need your calendar to make room for thinking before summer fills it up?

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