So after the launch of PleaseBringIt two weeks ago (here is our story), we decided to do something totally different at the office. We paused.

We have a mountain of work still to do on the project, so it wasn't for lack of to-do items. But we figured...we worked very hard to get to this point, the site isn't broken, people can actually use the product. So it was simply time pause. And we thought, by doing nothing, maybe we will learn something.

Many companies would say this idea is crazy. Understandably. We don't have tons of money in the bank, the product is new to the market, and we have huge tasks ahead like adding more features and promoting. But sometimes the best thing to do is stop, look around...then take a deep breath before submerging again. It felt crazy, but also totally right.

And somehow during this pause time we still accomplished quite a lot. Not the work we thought mattered, but other work, like thinking about which features are really, truly necessary. And perhaps two weeks taken now will save months of time later.

For company morale, for our personal experience, being able to reflect on the journey before moving on to the next stage was cathartic. Which makes me wonder why do so few companies schedule pauses into their workflow? In the past, much of our client work was like a never-ending relay race with little time to have lunch, let alone reflect on the journey and think about better ways to work. By pausing we were able to listen and learn. It was a luxury, definitely. And a great experiment that will become part of our company culture, now that we have identified its value.