In this episode of Unleash Your Impact, Unlock Others, Rich and Dave explore a leadership challenge that almost everyone recognises: the gap between being busy and adding value. Prompted by a simple question in the gym about why Dave prefers 30-minute classes, they dig into how short, deliberate pockets of time can fuel clarity, connection, creativity, and renewal.

Drawing on Stephen Covey’s distinction between urgent and important work, as well as the “sharpen the saw” mindset, the conversation reframes 30-minute windows as powerful leadership levers. Across ten practical ideas, Rich and Dave show how leaders can use half an hour to build trust, develop others, widen their strategic lens, break silo thinking, reset wellbeing, and reconnect with long-term purpose.

This episode offers grounded, realistic approaches that fit into busy schedules and challenges the culture of busyness as a badge of honour. Listeners are encouraged to pick one or two of the ten ideas, place them intentionally in the diary, and form new habits that make a difference.

Key Talking Points

• How 30-minute blocks of time can be used for developing capability, engaging in strategic thinking, and focusing on personal renewal
• Avoiding the trap that “being busy = adding value” and the importance of intentional effort
• Why, according to Stephen Covey, you should “Sharpen the Saw”
• Connection Time: building trust and psychological safety through genuine check-ins
• Micro-Coaching: turning quick chats into developmental conversations
• Recognition Rituals: using focused appreciation to reinforce culture and motivation
• Strategic Thinking Blocks: creating protected space to think beyond the day-to-day
• Creative Sprints: idea-generation sessions done solo or with others
• Learning Conversations: cross-team or cross-industry exchanges that spark innovation
• Customer or Stakeholder Curiosity: intentionally understanding the world of the people you serve
• Declutter & Prioritise: how to reset, clear your mind and find new energy
• Wellbeing Resets: micro-moments that regulate the nervous system and prevent burnout
• Future Self Sessions: using a future perspective to align with purpose now
• Final challenge: pick one or two habits, schedule them, and build consistency

Welcome to Unleash youh Impact Unlock Others, a podcast about inspiring leadership. We hope to bring you grounded wisdom, stories from real leaders and leave you feeling inspired. Let's dive in.

So welcome once again to Unleash youh Impact Unlock Others. This is the podcast where we explore what it really takes to lead with purpose, connection and impact in today's very complex world.

I'm Dave Morris and today we're going to explore something deceptively simple, the power of 30 minutes.

This conversation was triggered by a conversation I had in the gym the other day with somebody who said to me, why do you just do 30 minute classes in the gym? And I said, because actually I can fit 30 minutes into my schedule fairly easily. I quite like it as a burst to get some energy and some renewal.

And it got me thinking about, well, how else can we use 30 minutes in our leadership roles? And of course, the Zentano podcast most weeks is about 30 minutes. Today I'm joined, as usual, by Rich. Hello, Rich.

Hi, Dave.

Rich.

Today we're going to talk about the crucial difference between being busy and adding value, and how 30 minutes of intentional activity can help us do that. Now, most leaders I meet, I'm sure you'll probably agree with me, are busy.

Their calendars are packed, their inboxes are overflowing, and they're often constantly reacting to the next urgent thing that comes along. But actually, where do we create value as leaders?

I believe, and I know you believe, it's in those intentional moments, those small, purposeful blocks of time where you step out of the whirlwind and focus on what is truly important.

Yes. I think that sometimes leaders make the mistake of being busy rather than focusing on adding value.

And I think sometimes they see busyness is a bit of a badge of honour.

So it's almost like, you know, they feel guilty if there's any time where they're not doing their emails or their team's messages or doing some sort of activity.

And there's a sense in which when we're busy, when we're doing stuff, when we're producing emails, when we're going to meetings, that's visible and it feels like potentially we're adding value. But there is a difference between adding value and being busy.

And, you know, we're going to explore actually using your time effectively today to think about how can you add value in those, in those 30 minute sort of blocks.

Yeah.

So to further frame this conversation, I'm going to draw on Stephen Covey's seminal book, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and specifically pointing at two of the habits he talks about in that book. So one of those habits, habit three, is called put first things first.

And this is where Stephen introduces a time management matrix where he shows that most effective leaders operate not in the urgent and reactive zone, but in a space where things are important but not urgent. That is, they plan them, they don't do everything at the last minute.

And I think that's where some of the things we're going to talk about today, the development, the relationship building, the strategic thinking, the renewal, rest and renewal and recovery, all that stuff sits in that important but not urgent zone. So we'll talk about that.

The other habit and I'd like you to talk about this really is habit seven, sharpen the saw, because he tells a little story in the book about sharpening the saw. Do you want to just tell us that little story for us?

Yeah, I think that this is the final habit in the book. It's habit number seven.

And I think he puts this habit in to mitigate against the danger of being so productive and so busy and so focused on getting stuff done that actually we wear ourselves down. And we're going to be exploring that a little bit more in the next podcast as well. So he articulates this habit, which he calls sharpening the saw.

And to explain the habit, he tells a really, what I think is quite a powerful story.

So he tells the story of a man in the forest, and this man is vigorously trying to saw down a tree, and another person approaches him and notices the man. You know, he's sweating, he's exhausted, you know, and he's really struggling to make progress. He's making really slow progress.

So he asks, well, why don't you take a break and sharpen the saw? It's going to make your job easier. And the man responds, well, I don't have time to sharpen the saw. I'm too busy sawing.

Which I think is quite a powerful story because it illustrates the fact that in life, often we mistake busyness for adding value, and we don't take the time out to do things that perhaps are not urgent but are really important.

Yeah, I think for me, the reason that story resonates rich is that it reminds you that effectiveness doesn't just come by doing relentless doing. Yes, I think that's the point. But it comes from taking time intentionally to renew.

And I mean that renewal or recharging could be mental renewal, things physical, emotional, spiritual, or all of the above, actually, because those things create clarity they create impact.

And I think this is why I think half an hour windows are quite a nice little idea here because it's not a huge block of time, but it's enough time to do something meaningful.

And you know, I know you do, you know, reflection time, it might not be dead on 30 minutes, but you know, you don't do hours and hours of it, but you do these little blocks of time.

Yes.

Going back to my example of, you know, going to the gym and just doing classes for 30, maybe 45 minutes at the most, I don't go there any longer than that because that just fits into my day. And I think we could find these bits of time and use them really intentionally and really powerfully.

Yes.

So over the next half an hour, Rich and I are going to explore 10 ideas, 10 powerful ways to use just 30 minutes of your time to lead better, to think better, and ultimately to feel better. Moving away from being reactive towards being intentional, and moving away from being busy. The point Rich made to truly adding value.

So grab a notebook, grab your coffee, whatever you need. Take time to pause and reflect. And let's reimagine how these short bursts of time in your day can become a really impactful leadership tool for you.

So Rich, let's dive into the first of these ten 30 minute habits, if you like. And actually I've got the first three are all about connection and coaching people. So I've got three things to talk about with you here.

One is connection time. That is the importance of authentic check ins and how do we do them without any set agenda.

The next one is micro coaching, these little quick chats that turn into development moments. And the third one here is a recognition ritual. How a short block of appreciation can shift culture and motivation inside a business.

So let's start with connection time. Why having 30 minutes of connection time do you think is so important in a business?

So if you look at the research around what makes good teams operate really well, building psychological safety and building trust is a really important part of that. So creating an environment where people feel that you have their back, that they have a voice, all of those things I think are really important.

It's what we call creating an environment where people can feel vulnerable, they can share their mistakes, they can share their failures and all that sort of stuff. And actually one way to build trust inside a team is simply just to get to know people on a personal level.

Because when you know somebody, when you know a human being and you know them more deeply if they make a mistake, for example, you're, you're more likely to be forgiving of them, you know, because you have that, that, that sort of deeper relationship or if somebody messes up and you know them personally, that, you know, they feel more able to share that mistake of that, that vulnerability with you.

So this, this little microhabit is about rather than having a one to one where you have a list of tasks that you've assigned to the person in your team to do and then, you know, the one to one is about, you know, just going down the list and checking off the tasks that they've done.

Actually you spend a little bit more time just exploring how they are, how is their motivation, you know, how are they coping, you know, ask them about their weekend, you know, anything that's, that begins to deepen the relationship and make it feel more human.

Now some people find this easier to do and more comfortable than others and other people might think, well, that's just, you know, this is a place of work and you know, being soft and fluffy and asking about people's weekend is not something that I do naturally and that's fine.

But if you want to build trust and if you want to feel that the team feel that you have their back, working to create those deeper relationships, I think is really important.

Do you know what you just reminded me? I mean, we had a committee meeting at our tennis club this weekend and I'm currently the chair of the committee.

And a few months ago I introduced this idea that every committee meeting, we would spend the first few minutes of the committee meeting doing a little segue. And it's got nothing to do with the operation of the tennis club. It's about anybody's got any personal good news they want to share.

Of course, at the beginning of when we started doing this, everyone was looking around thinking, well, I feel a bit awkward doing this, I'm not going to say anything. But actually they've got used to it. And this week when we did it, all sorts of really interesting stuff came out.

There was one lady who said, my daughter's been on telly, I've got a video. And she's shown us a video of her daughter being on her.

But what I've noticed over the last few months it's done is it has actually got us to know each other on a very personal level. It doesn't feel like we're just turning up ticking a box and going home again.

And I think, and I think, you know, that is really powerful because, you know, like most leadership teams and a committee is a Leadership team, you've got some pretty important stuff to talk about and do.

And I think the more that you have each other's backs, the more you create that trust and that psychological safety to really talk about some quite meaty things. It becomes much easier if you actually know people on a more personal level.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think it's also the antidote to hybrid working where there's a danger that teams and meetings can become very transactional, you know, so, you know, as I said, very focused on getting the task done, going through a series of checklists about, you know, what you have or haven't done. So building the relationship is really important. That connection time.

So that connection time is really important. 30 minutes of that could pay real dividends. The next one, which is sort of similar micro coaching.

So turning quick chats into little development moments. Do you just want to talk about that, Rich?

Yeah. So this is really down to embedding a coaching approach into the way you work. Resist the urge to tell people what to do.

I mean, we've said this countless times on this podcast. Resist the urge to tell people what to do, to give them the answer.

And, you know, just having a 30 minute chat where somebody brings to you a problem that they're having, you know, take 30 minutes just to have a coaching conversation with them, you know, identify that challenge, help them to work through how they're going to solve the problem and help them to come up with the answer for themselves.

Another way to use a 30 minute coaching segment is to explore with somebody rather than just exploring the day to day and the challenges day to day, think developmentally about actually in the next year, what does this person need to develop their capability to do the role they're doing even better and explore that with them. And again, you know, resist the urge to go into tell mode and think you know best and think you know what they want.

It might be that your experience tells you that there's something that they want from a developmental perspective, but explore that with them and have those deeper chats with people.

Yeah, because what this does, I mean, there's a number of benefits, but it unlocks proactivity, it unlocks motivation, it unlocks being more engaged in your role, doesn't it? There's a whole lot of benefits that this will unlock.

I think this is about valuing time and thinking about, actually, if I spend this 30 minutes, what will the knock on benefits be? And there will be lots. You may not see it straight away, but there will be lots of knock on benefits here yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then the one that's linked to this as well is recognition ritual.

So what I'm talking about here is a short block of appreciation that can shift a leadership culture, a company culture, but it can also drive motivation. So how would you use half an hour to do some recognition? Rich?

Yeah, this is, this is really interesting, I think, actually, because I've seen two extremes of behavior with this particular idea of, of showing appreciation and showing recognition. So you can get the manager that is constantly just saying, yeah, well done, well done, well done.

And you know, every time somebody does something, they say, yeah, jolly well done, really great job, etc. Etc. So it's almost like this constant flow of well done, well done, well done. And on one level, there's nothing particularly wrong with that.

That might be a reflection of their natural personality style, but the danger is that too much of that sort of stuff, it just becomes like wallpaper or noise, you know, and people just say, well, that's just what they say. They all say that. Yeah. And the danger also with that approach is actually just saying well done is very non specific. Okay.

So it doesn't give people anything tangible to, to lock onto. The other extreme is where leaders and managers, they, they barely show appreciation and recognition for a job well done.

And when they, when they do intervene, they intervene when there's a problem or there's a performance issue. You know, so, so that can create a culture where, you know, if you ask to see somebody for a chat, the person is the person's immediate, okay.

What have I done wrong?

Yeah, what have I done wrong? What have I done wrong?

And so actually, you know, what we're advocating is somewhere in the middle is to create a culture where you have a tendency to show recognition and appreciation. And ideally that should outweigh the times you intervene with a developmental performance conversation, if you like, let's put it that way.

But when you do give recognition and positive feedback, make it very specific because people then know what it is you spotted. It shows that actually you're taking notice of what they do and recognizing their real achievements.

So, for example, you could say in that presentation that you did last week, I noticed actually that the graphics you used were fantastic and the way you structured that presentation was really good and it really had an impact. And as a result, our customer engagement was really high during that time.

So that actually gives a person really specific feedback that they can then go away and say, right, okay, I can continue to do that.

And also they get a real sense of achievement because they can tie what you've said to something specific that they've said as opposed to it just being just a generic, you know, jolly well done type thing.

The other way you could do this or another way to use this. Rich.

And it's been prompted by an email I had from my kids school this week where one of my girls has been championed because she's upholding the school values.

And I was thinking actually in a business context, why don't we use this recognition ritual to just think about two or three people that in the last week, month, whenever, whatever it is, have actually really championed our organizational values. Let's go and have a conversation with those two or three people and just actually say thank you but talk to them about the impact of their behavior.

So there's loads of ways, if you just think about it, that you can actually do some really useful stuff here just by recognizing what people are doing well. So that's the first segment. Connection and coaching. Three little habits. Connection time, micro coaching, recognition ritual.

Three little ways that you can use 30 minutes to help someone else's growth or well being. I want to move it on now, Rich, to talk about some ways in which we can spend 30 minutes doing strategic and creative focused things.

So I've got four things to talk about here with you. A strategic thinking block where we move from doing to some thinking and planning time.

A creative sprint where we encourage idea generation without any undue pressure. Yes. Unstructured thinking for 30 minutes if you like. Learning conversations where we have cross department or cross industry exchanges.

And this one I like particularly customer curiosity sessions where we call or visit a customer, either internal or external and try to understand their world better. So there's four things for you here. Let's just talk about the first one. A strategic thinking block.

Moving away from doing to do some thinking and planning. How do you think that would work?

Yeah, I think the barrier to this actually is taking time away from the desk, away from the, you know, the team's messages, away from the emails and spending time thinking can feel like we're being a bit lazy.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, because we're not being, we're not being busy. We're intentionally taking, taking time out. We're creating space to have strategic thinking time. I remember I talked to, he was a bank leader.

He worked for a quite forward thinking bank at the time and one of the things that was one of his mantras that he used to tell his staff was I'm paid to think.

So you know, he would have times during his day Where I can't remember whether he either shut the door or put some sort of indication up that actually this is his thinking time. So unless it's urgent, please don't interrupt me.

And I thought that was a really interesting little thing to do because it sets the culture of actually, you know, he's paid to think strategically and he, you know, he values that time and he protects that time.

Yeah. And this is about thinking about the bigger picture. So I think you're right. We've got to reframe this.

This is not about being busy, this is about adding value.

Yes, exactly.

It's not being lazy at all. It's about adding value. And actually it's thinking about the bigger picture.

So it might be that you take 30 minutes to think about some upcoming challenges.

It might be that you want to think about what's going on in your marketplace and your industry and some of the shifts that are coming your way and how you're going to react to them.

It might be thinking about some long term goals that you want to achieve or it could simply be going through some what if scenarios, depends what's going on in your world. But all of these are examples of strategic thinking blocks. And as you said, no emails, no, no nothing.

This is just space for strategic curiosity and strategic thinking. So that's, that's one creative sprint, encouraging idea generation without pressure. Just talk to me about that one, Rich.

Yeah, again, this is a little bit like, you know, creating space to do strategic thinking. So for example, you know, I'm responsible inside Zentano for leading on the design of our workshops and our IP and that sort of stuff.

So actually I do spend time and set aside blocks of time where I do creative thinking, you know, and you know, spend time on my notebook, ChatGPT, you know, whatever that might be, where I spent, spend some time focused time where I shut the emails, I turn the phone on to do not disturb, I put my earphones in and just spend time, you know, brainstorming, you know, in whatever way works with my, with my style of thinking. I think, I think setting aside that time and space again is really important.

And it doesn't have to be just doing a creative sprint with yourself. It could be you could get two or three people together and do a creative sprint with a group of you.

Yeah, yeah. And that leads on to the next point actually, you know, those learning conversations. Yeah.

Spend time collaborating with people, sparking innovation, work across the silos in your organization, build those relationships, learn the perspective of other departments, other industries and that's a really powerful way to stimulate your strategic and your creative thinking.

So those learning conversations with other industries, other partners, other departments, they're a really good way to create that creative spark when you're doing your strategic and creative thinking.

What? Also, I think you and I hear this a lot, don't you, about We've got some silo mentality in our business, in our organization.

This is a great way of breaking down that silo mentality because I'm actually intentionally going out to find out what's going on in another part of the business. But it will benefit me, It'll benefit them. But there's a, there's a. So there's a purpose to it.

But actually it is really widening your perspective, getting you to see things from a different perspective to maybe the one that you normally look at things through.

Yeah.

So. And this can drive innovation, can't it? That's one of the, again, the benefits. It can drive innovation and spark new ideas.

Yeah.

And the last one, customer curiosity. I don't know what you think about this.

Call or visit a customer could be an internal customer, could be an external customer, just to understand their reality, their world a bit better.

Yeah, this is really important.

If I go back to my IT career, one of the things that I did intentionally, in pretty much all the roles that I did related to the IT service I was responsible for providing. I intentionally set up regular meetings with key stakeholders, key customers.

So I, you know, go have a conversation with them, explore how, you know, the, the IT was working for them, you know, what their strategic drivers were, what their challenges were, and then, and then thinking about the service we provide and the infrastructure that we provide, how IT aligns or doesn't align with that. So I used to do that on a regular basis and I used to. And as well as talking with customers, used to talk to users as well.

We used to have a user forum. Got to be a little bit careful with having user forums because you can't give users everything that they want.

No, no.

But actually having those meetings with customers and with users, again, that was useful information, useful fodder, if you like, for creative and strategic thinking.

Yeah. And actually maybe we should turn this one not just to customer curiosity, but stakeholder curiosity because actually it isn't just customers.

Now you're getting me to think about my role at the tennis club where actually as chair and we've got some pretty important things we're trying to do. I'm actually going out purposely engaging with the local council with a local.

What's called the Placebo Committee, which is like a little mini economic development forum for the town that the club is in and engaging with them, asking them what their priorities are, what their challenges are, telling them about what we're doing and how that might benefit each other. So I'm doing that intentionally because it will benefit the club. Now that we've never really done that before. And I think, do you know what?

It's paying real dividends.

I'll give you an example where actually one of the investments you want to make in the club, one of these conversations, has potentially found a source of cash. So there you go. You just never know what's going to happen until you go and have these conversations. So I guess there's four things there.

Strategic thinking blocks, creative sprints, learning conversations, and customer or stakeholder curiosity moments. What problem could you reframe or reimagine if you just gave it 30 minutes of your uninterrupted thought or time?

So the last segment, Rich the last three habits are all about personal clarity and renewal. So there's three things I want to talk to you about here. Declutter and prioritize.

This is a mini reset for your week, if you like a well being reset, little micro moments to regulate your sympathetic nervous system and just prevent burnout, and a future self session where you actually think about yourself from the perspective of the future and your whole sense of purpose. So let's just unpack those one at a time. Declutter and prioritize. A mini reset for your week. How does that work?

So people that listen to us might know, it's been a while since we've mentioned it actually, but they might know that we advocate bullet journaling as a means for managing yourself, managing your productivity. And you know, bullet journaling is not the be all and the end all but it. But it's something that works for me.

I don't think you use the bullet journaling method yourself, you use a hybrid of it. But actually the principles behind bullet journaling are this.

On a monthly basis, you take stock of your month, you look ahead to the month ahead, you plan your diary and you plan the really key important tasks, you know, the big things that you need to get done in that month and you list those in your monthly log.

Then on a daily basis, what you then do is, you know, you list for the day, your intentions for the day, but you're always looking back to your monthly intentions. So it built in this really nice rhythm of on a monthly basis, do a bigger picture.

Meta Review where you go and what's important to you is what you're doing aligned with your sense of purpose and your values. And then on a daily basis you're constantly checking back to those priorities.

So I think those little mini resets that you can do on a monthly and a daily basis, a really good way to just get a sense of, you know, is what I'm doing aligned to what's important to me and the business.

Yeah, and you're right, I do use a slightly different method to you. I like to use a fairly unstructured method. But some people like a bit of structure.

So you could, if you wanted to do this, just say, okay, I'll sit down once a week or I'll sit down once a day and just work out. Is there anything I want to stop doing, anything I want to start doing, anything I want to continue doing?

You know that you can build a little bit of structure into this. If that's not. There's loads of ways you can do that. Some people like to do that because it just structures their thoughts.

Me, I just prefer to almost start from a completely blank sheet. But that takes practice. I think. I used to like more structure when I first started doing this. I tend not to now.

So that's declutter and prioritise a well being reset.

What I'm talking about here, as I said earlier on, is those smallish moments where you regulate your nervous system and you do something to prevent burnout. So how does this one work for 30 minutes? Rich?

Yeah, I don't want to be get too preachy here because. No, no, no, no, no, not at all. Because there's a danger here. You get people to feel guilty and all that sort of stuff.

Yeah.

But this, this goes back to the story of keeping the soul sharp. And you know, so this is different for everyone. So, you know, what, what are you doing to keep your soul sharp?

To, to ensure that you stay resilient and that your well being, actually you value well being.

So whether that's, you know, walking, exercise, you know, taking time out to, to meditate, to do breath work, yoga journaling, there's so many things that you can do around well being and everyone is so different and the things that people want to do are personal to us. But I think it is really important to take time to recharge your nervous system and to, you know, to bring balance between back into your life.

You'll remember this, Richard. There was a workshop we were doing a couple of years back. It was an energy management workshop.

Actually, and one of the gentlemen in the room, we were talking about what sort of habits do people have? And he actually said that every lunchtime, come rain, come shine, he goes out and takes a 30 minute walk around the local area.

And in fact he said I'd start doing more of that recently because of COVID and all the things that had happened in the last few years. But that's a good example.

It may not be for everybody, as you said, not everyone can do that, but for that person, he said it was really, really beneficial just to clear his head. Gives you a bit of exercise as well, which is great. Probably a bit of thinking time as well.

Yeah. And I think the important thing with these sorts of activities, these are activities that re energize you.

So, you know, you come back to your desk or your, or your workstation, you know, whatever that is. And actually you've done something that's rebuilt the energy and sharpened the saw.

Yeah, and this is really why I do those 30 minute gym classes. Because whether it's a circuits class, whether it's a core conditioning class, whatever it might be, it does give me exactly that.

It gives me that little bit of burst of energy and it sets me up basically for the rest of the day, rest of the week. And the last one, which is an interesting one, a Future Self session.

So writing from your future self's perspective to stay aligned with your purpose. Talk to me about that one, Rich.

Yeah, we do this sometimes in our leadership programs where either at the beginning of the program and or at the end of the program, we ask our delegates to think about what sort of leader would they like to be at the end of our leadership program, say in a year's time, or at the end of our leadership program, they've had all that sort of good learning from the, from the programmes that we've run. And then we say, right, okay, so now think this is where you are, this is all the stuff you learn. Where would you like to be in, in a year's time?

So almost like magic yourself into the future and think about, you know, what is it that would look different for me as a leader? What would I be doing differently? How would I behave in, you know, what's, what's driving what I do, what would I like to have achieved?

So by doing this it starts to create a sense of intentionality and it helps you to articulate what's important and it gives you some sort of shape to actually what you're going to be focusing on as a leader over the Coming year. Now, when we do it inside our programs, we get people actually to physically write a letter to themselves in the future.

And then we take the letters off them, put them in a sealed envelope, and then post it back to the people in a year's time. And it's really interesting to see the power of those letters and that sense of, oh, yeah, I've come a long way in that way.

And from that initial skepticism when we ask them to engage in the exercise. So it might sound a bit corny, this sort of exercise, but in our experience, you know, we've done this with lots and lots and lots of delegates.

It's really powerful. It creates intentionality and it creates focus and it creates clarity.

Yeah. And of course, what we're not saying is that every one of these 10 suggestions we're making today is right for everybody.

No, no.

Yeah, but, but actually we do know that all of these things work. We've got evidence that all of these things work. So let's just recap on what we just talked about.

So segment one was all about connection and coaching, connection time, micro coaching, recognition rituals. This was about how you can spend 30 minutes purely focused on someone else's growth or well being. Segment two is about strategic and creative focus.

So we talked about strategic thinking blocks, creative sprints, learning conversations, and customer stakeholder curiosity moments. This was about what problem could you reframe or reimagine by giving it 30 minutes of your uninterrupted time?

And this last segment was about personal clarity and renewal. So we talked about decluttering and prioritizing, well, being resets and that future self session.

And this was all about, you know, what would your future self say in 12 months time? Say thank you for effectively for giving it 30 minutes today. So that's an interesting one.

If I spent 30 minutes a day, how would I be glad that I did that for myself in a year's time? You won't know that until a year's time. But believe me, as you said, we've got evidence that it works. So Rich, this is not.

This whole conversation today is not about finding more time because time is finite, but it's being more deliberate with the time that you already have. So if we were going to pull out some calls to action from this conversation for people, what do you think those calls to action would be?

Take small steps with this, you know, because we've given you 10. Don't do all 10, for goodness sake.

But you know, just pick one or two of these and just create an intention to block 30 minutes in your diary to do that thing and make it a habit. And make it a habit. So small steps, put it in your diary because that creates intention and try to make it a habit.

So maybe anyone listening to this thinking, yeah, I get the power, so I'm going to give this a go. Pick one or two, and it may be one of those 10 we've talked about. You might better think of your own. These are just ten suggestions.

Yeah, but as Rich said, make it intentional in the next week. Any other points you want to make, Rich, before we wrap up?

So, just to say, you know, the reason for this podcast was to challenge people to sharpen the saw and to challenge the culture of busyness as a badge of honour, you know. So these 10 ideas are just 10 potential ways to sharpen the saw and to challenge the idea that busyness as a badge of honor.

Yeah, I love that. So there you have it, everybody. 10 Ways to Use 30 Minutes not as a gap in your diary, but as a deliberate act of leadership. Yeah.

So whether you spend time connecting with someone, clearing your head, coaching a team member, whatever it might be, remember that it's those small, consistent moments that you take are what actually creates the big impact in the longer run. So Rich has already given you the challenge for the week.

Try and find one or two 30 minute slots in your calendar, reclaim them, use them intentionally, and then just notice how your focus, your energy and your impact starts to change.

And if today's episode has sparked anything for you, please share it with another leader, another friend, another colleague who could also use a reminder to slow down and lead with more intention. So, as always, thank you for listening to our podcast.

We will be back next week, but in the meantime, keep leading with clarity, connection, and above all, courage. Rich, thanks for your time again today.

Yeah, thank you, Dave. Thank you.