The Dog Digest | Walkies for better ideas: why stepping away helps

There are some things dogs just do better.

Greeting people with genuine enthusiasm. Napping without guilt. Finding joy in the same walk you did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that.

Sydney, in particular, has been reminding us here at Keystone of the value of a good wander.

Through the flowers, into the long grass, nose down, ears up and fully committed to the moment. No inbox. No notifications. No “just one more thing before lunch”.

Lovely work, Syd.

Of course, most of us can’t spend our working day bounding through the undergrowth, however appealing that might sound. But there is something important in the idea of stepping away.

Not as a treat when everything is finished. Not as something you have to earn. Just as a way to give your brain a bit of room.

Because we’re all guilty of sitting at our desks for too long. After a while, everything can start to feel a bit cramped: our thinking, our patience and even our perspective.

So, if an idea won’t quite land, or you’re still staring at the same email after reading it 14 times, sometimes the best thing you can do is leave it alone for a bit.

Go for a walk around the block. Spend ten minutes in the garden. Step outside. Move. Look at something that is not a screen.

And if you are eating sandwiches at your desk again, getting crumbs in the keyboard, that is probably your sign.

A change of scenery can do more than we give it credit for. It gives your mind something different to work with. It can help loosen a conversation, shift a mood or make space for the thought that would not come when you were trying to force it.

The same applies at work. Not every useful conversation has to happen in a meeting room. Not every good idea arrives because someone has booked 30 minutes in the diary and added an agenda.

Better thinking often comes when there is a bit more space around it. Better conversations happen when people feel human, not hurried. And better work comes from people who have had a chance to breathe.

There are plenty of things we can learn from dogs. They can help with your marketing too, but that is a conversation we had last time.

For now, if your brain feels stuck, take a leaf out of Sydney’s book.

You don’t have to disappear into a field of flowers, although frankly we wouldn’t blame you.

Just step away for a moment.

Your inbox will still be there when you get back.

Annoyingly.