Ryan NisbetOperations, Delphi · Operations at Delphi

Mistaking Motion for Progress: The Power of Doing Less

8 May 2026 · 0 min

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The speaker spent time meeting people and taking photos but produced nothing concrete, then realized he'd been mistaking motion for progress. He used to fill every calendar gap with tasks. Now he leaves space for reflection to figure out what actually matters instead of just staying busy.

like motion, motion, motion. And then I just like reflect on it after like a, you know, sort of month or two and I'm like, I got nothing done basically other than like, yes, met lots of people, took lots of pictures. But like if you look at the like output, yeah, technically there was, you know, sort of no output. I'm now much more comfortable with just having like gaps on my calendar versus like an earlier career version of me was like, if there are gaps, I should find ways to go be productive to go fill it. But sometimes it's in those gaps where I just like have the time to like sit and reflect and actually think about like what is going to be that most impactful thing.