The five minutes that turn firefighting into fireproofing
There’s a moment, right after the thing. The email that derailed your morning, the conversation that went sideways, the system that failed at exactly the wrong time. You handle it. You respond. You fix what needs fixing. And then, like most of us, you move on. Straight to the next thing.
Because there’s always a next thing.
But here’s the problem: when we only ever react, we quietly sign up to relive the same moments again.
The hidden cost of staying reactive
With the pace of work and life, reactivity can feel like competence. You’re responsive. Available. On it. But if we keep this up, we burn ourselves out pretty quickly, get stuck in the weeds of work and our satisfaction declines.
The paradox is that while calendars are full, workload is at capacity, and projects keep happening, we just don’t have time to go deeper and find good, permanent solutions. We could do after-action reviews, learning loops and deliberate reflection. We know teams that do perform better over time because they convert experience into learning, and that even short periods of reflection can make a significant difference.
In other words, doing more isn’t what makes us better; thinking about what we just did does.
The Five-Minute Upgrade
Whoa! Hang on. Even short periods of time? What if we just tried five minutes? Not a full debrief. Not a workshop. Not a beautifully facilitated offsite with coloured markers. Just five minutes. Right after the moment. Enough time to shift from thinking “Glad that’s over” to “What just happened and how do I make that easier next time?”
Okay, smarty pants … How? Well, first, keep it simple. You’re not writing a thesis, you’re catching a pattern.
What actually happened? Not the dramatic version. The observable one. What triggered the situation?
Where did it wobble? Was it unclear expectations? Timing? Someone missing context? Are you at 2% battery?
What’s one small tweak? Not a full system overhaul. Just ONE THING that would reduce the likelihood or impact next time. That might be sending information earlier, clarifying a decision upfront, creating a template, setting a boundary or simply noticing your own early warning signs
Why this works (even on a Bad Day)
When you’re in a reactive state, your brain is in a more threat-focused mode - fast, efficient, but not especially reflective (hello, amygdala). A short pause, even a few minutes, helps re-engage the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for planning, decision-making, and learning.
You don’t need an hour. You just need a moment of intentional shift.
That's why on a Bad Day, everything feels immediate. Urgent. Loud. The instinct is to get through it. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you should do. But occasionally, those five minutes at the end can turn a Bad Day from something that just happened to you into something that gave you a small edge next time. Not in a “everything happens for a reason” way, just in a practical, “well, that was useful” kind of way.
And while five minutes doesn’t sound like much, over time, it does something powerful. There are fewer repeat problems, faster recovery when things go wrong, and a growing sense of control rather than chaos in a loop.
It’s the difference between “I keep dealing with this” and “I’m getting better at this”.
A gentle reality check
You won’t always do it. Some days, you’ll go from crisis to crisis and collapse into your chair, eating TimTams. That’s fine. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about increasing your odds of learning slightly more often than not.
You don’t need to become less reactive. You just need to add a sliver of proactivity after the fact. Five minutes. One insight. A slightly better next time. That’s it. And over time, that’s everything.