The 15 minute hack to get a 20% boost in productivity

Getting better at what we do isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s the fuel for growth in every career and in every business. The question is how we do it.

There are three main routes:

• Learning – Taking in instruction from others (books, training, AI).

• Earning – Building experience through effort, failure, and repetition.

• Discerning – Reflecting to spot new ideas and hidden patterns.

The first is the easiest. The second is the most painful. The third is the hardest to master, yet it’s also the fastest way to make big leaps forward in capability.

Reflection is where the breakthroughs happen. When we pause and ask, “Is this the best way?” we give our creativity space to breathe. Suddenly, patterns emerge that were invisible while we were heads-down grinding.

And the best part? It doesn’t take much time or effort to create big gains.

Research shows just 15 minutes of daily reflection and journaling can boost productivity by over 20% because it brings to the surface new ideas we can’t easily discover by continuing to grind away.

To make reflection practical, try these SCAMPER prompts. They give your brain a clear focus to work with:

• Substitute – What can I replace?

• Combine – What can I add?

• Adapt – What can I approach differently?

• Modify – What can I tweak or adjust?

• Put to another use – What can I repurpose?

• Eliminate – What can I stop doing?

• Reverse – What can I flip or reorder?

Grinding away gets you incremental progress. But reflection gets you exponential progress.

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