Percolation time is too valuable to skip

With AI comes a pressure to deliver projects more quickly, robustly, efficiently and cheaply. Clients will expect answers faster. And you can move faster - with your mini team of virtual assistants and prompts helping you organize research and workshops, sorting all the ‘fodder’ you need to create a deliverable from.

But then you need to stop. And breathe.

Because the answer doesn’t come from another prompt aimed at your organized pile of fodder.

From my experience, it most often comes when you walk away from it.

I call it percolation time. It's the gap between soaking everything in and getting to ideas on what it really means.

I build in at least 8 days percolation time in my projects. And it's the thing I will never cut regardless of client timelines or budgets.

Why it matters to me

I've been a brand strategist for over 25 years, including a decade as a senior director of brand strategy at Landor. I've worked on brands from EY and Gatorade to Viagra and Claridge’s. And if you asked me where I cracked most of their strategies, the honest answer isn't at my desk.

It's in one of three places. On a walk, in the shower, or in bed.

I keep a gratitude journal by my bed. The front is for gratitude. The back has notes pages, and that's where most of my positioning statements, purpose statements and naming ideas have actually been written. Late at night or first thing in the morning, with no other inputs around me.

This isn't new. Way back in 1926, on his book The Art of Thought, Graham Wallas described the creative process in four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. Incubation is my percolation (I picture my brain as the bubbling coffee pot filtering out what’s important). It's the bit where you stop working on the problem and let the back of your brain get on with it. Darwin walked laps of a gravel path at his home, the Sandwalk, to do his thinking. Stanford researchers in 2014 found people come up with more creative ideas walking than sitting.

But here's the thing. You need both steps in the process. The preparation before the percolation.

The journal only works because of the desk. If I haven't done the interviews, read the research and dove into the material, there's nothing to percolate. Percolation isn't an alternative to the prep work. It's what turns prep work into an answer.

And yes - AI can percolate in 30 seconds and spit out a decent-looking answer. But in brand strategy decent-looking is a problem. It's built from what's already been said in the past, so it sounds sensible but only because it’s like something else you’ve seen before. The answer that's actually stronger for a brand (relevant, different and authentic to them) needs your brain to connect some dots and do something AI can't do for you. It needs to wander off and come back.

A time it made a difference

Percolation time hasn’t just made me better at brand strategy work. One of the best decisions in my working life came on a walk.

I'd been doing strategy for clients for years, and I had a niggle. I knew I wanted to do something more. I just couldn't figure out what.

So I went for a lot of walks. Usually around the same fields. And one day I noticed a bench that I’d somehow missed before. I sat down for a moment, and suddenly it felt obvious. I wanted to teach brand strategy. I wanted to take everything I'd learnt doing brand strategy the hard way and make it clearer and simpler for people trying to learn it.

That's where Brand Strategy Academy came from. It’s trained over 490 designers, strategists, copywriters and marketers to do brand strategy and it’s reinvigorated not just my working life but also my approaches to brand strategy.

I still have a photo of that bench. It reminds me the answer didn't come from sitting at my desk and thinking harder. It came from stopping and letting things percolate a bit.

How to build it in

Percolation won't happen by accident. Here's how I make room for it.

1. Put it in the plan.
When you write a proposal or project timeline, add a gap between immersion and the strategy. And protect it at all costs. I call it analysis rather than percolation in client work but that’s what it’s there for. (If you want a ready-made brand strategy project plan you can get mine for free with the code ARETO here (normally $97)).

2. Fill the pot first.
Percolation only works on a full head. Do the research, immerse yourself in everything, wrestle with it properly. Then walk away.

3. Keep a way of taking notes where your brain switches off.
By the bed, in your bag, next to the kettle. I have a little notebook in my bag at all times. You’ll see me walking the fields around where I live talking into my Notes app on my phone. Or use Wispr. Ideas turn up when you're not ready for them and you don’t want to lose those thoughts when they come.

4. Walk without input.
No podcast, music, notifications. Don’t allow that phone to beep at you. Give your brain nothing new to process and it'll get on with what you've already given it.

5. Do it for your own year ahead.
Most of us never give our own work or life the thinking time we give clients. Block a day a quarter. Take a walk. Ask yourself the questions you'd ask a client - your ambition, what you want to stand for, your values, the contribution you want to make. One of my favourite days of the year is January 3rd. It’s my day to hide away, think and percolate on my year ahead. (With a fresh head not a hangover).

Find the time to percolate a bit more. You never know what wonderful answers might emerge.

About the author

Sarah Robb (Brand Strategy Sarah)

Brand strategist, founder of Brand Strategy Academy, and co-author of Rebrand Right.

I help designers, strategists, copywriters and marketers get clear and confident doing brand strategy.

brandstrategysarah.com

A gift for Areto readers

Get Sarah's Brand Strategy Project Plan for free (normally $97) using the code ARETO.

Download the free Project Plan

Photography: Catherine Gil