The powerful business 'hack' of… pondering

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I’m using the word ‘hack’ deliberately. We are absolutely bombarded with them - hacks, must-dos, routines to power up, double down, and warp time and productivity into some hyperbolic kind of reality.

Pondering is the antidote to all of that noise.

It is an under-used, reverse superpower. A slow superpower.

Ironically, by slowing down and intentionally giving ourselves time to think, we are likely to be more impactful, more purposeful, and make fewer mistakes. I know this runs counter to every message our culture is sending us about a million times a day. But I think it’s something we probably all need to hear more than once.

So what do I actually mean by pondering?

It is actively stepping back from noise and productivity. Doing things without urgency or a focus on outcome. Making space to think and connect with yourself. Being open, curious, playful, reflective. Seeing what surfaces when you slow down.

Time to think.

For me, it looks like sitting quietly in a sunbeam with a hot cup of coffee - not reading, not messaging, not catching up with anything. Just thinking. Going for a walk, not to get somewhere or exercise or listen to a podcast, just moving quietly through space. Doing simple, repetitive tasks in the garden - weeding, planting, watering - things that don’t need much of my mind, so my mind is free to wander. Sometimes it’s sitting with a journal by some water and asking myself: hey you, how’s things? What do you want to celebrate? What’s missing?

Once a month I schedule a ‘thinking day’ with myself. Once a month, a ‘creative day’.

I’ll be honest - I’ve felt self-conscious about this. Recently I sat next to a fellow entrepreneur at a networking event. We were talking about time outside, walking, being in the fresh air. She asked what podcasts or audiobooks I listened to on my walks. I found myself answering a little sheepishly: none. I suddenly felt a touch of imposter syndrome. Surely a proper founder would always be learning, always have their finger on the pulse? ‘None’ felt like a fairly empty answer. Like I wasn’t serious.

This isn’t the first time my choices around making space for thinking have raised an eyebrow.

And I like to be taken seriously.

But here’s what I’ve come to understand: this isn’t about opting out.

It’s about making inner space for clarity and impact.

If I’m always moving, always consuming, always doing - I lose the ability to reflect, to spot what’s actually working, to make the small adjustments that change everything. You can’t iterate on something you haven’t paused to look at.

I’m working with a founder and mum to a toddler who came to me feeling frozen - unable to make decisions, overwhelmed, not herself. We’d been working on boundaries, which had helped. The next thing she identified was that she needed some time that was just hers. We found a few hours each morning after her daughter went to daycare. I asked what she’d do with it. She said she’d go to the gym. But I noticed something - the energy around that answer was flat. She admitted it felt like a ‘should’. So we went back. If not the gym, then what? Her face changed completely. She’d be dancing. Singing. Letting her mind wander. That was what she was missing. And if she could have that in her mornings, she could bring that version of herself into the rest of her day - as an entrepreneur and as a parent.

Another client described where she does her best thinking. Every evening, while her partner does the bedtime routine with their toddler, she sits in a comfy hanging egg chair in their bedroom. She knits. And as she knits, she ponders. It is, she told me, the most powerful time in her day. She grounds herself. Checks in. Regroups. That quiet repetitive motion - hands busy, mind free - is not nothing. It is everything. Quiet knitting as a pharmaceutical research superpower.

And then there’s a young entrepreneur I work with, juggling a business and his studies. He’d stripped everything out of his life that wasn’t work or studying. His spark was dimming. He’d had his first disappointing exam result and was determined to work even harder. Instead, we ran an experiment. For a month, we brought everything back - music, walks, time with friends, his partner, meditation, space to do what he calls ‘just be’. He sat another exam. He was back to himself. It went well. The difference hadn’t been doing more. It had been filling his batteries.

Then he landed an exciting new contract. The pressure hit and, being human, he reverted. He shared a schedule he’d built for the two weeks before the contract started - packed, no gaps, no breathing room. I asked him whether he’d included any of the things from our experiment. A long pause. No… Not one. So I asked him what would make the most impact to his plan. ‘Time to just be,’ he said quietly. He went away and rewrote his plan.

The world rewards relentless forward motion. I understand the pull of it. But if you never stop to reflect, to wander, to let your thoughts catch up with you - you risk burning yourself out, or your business, or both.

Pondering isn’t wasted time. It is, I’d argue, some of the most productive time you will spend.

So here’s what I’d invite you to try: schedule one small pocket of thinking time this week. Not to solve anything, not to plan anything. Just to be with yourself and see what you notice.

Then tell me - where do you do your best pondering?