Today is day 2089 of my daily run, and I am recording from Andorra. I am midway through the quarter and I have taken a mid-quarter break. Here is why I do this every quarter, and what the break did for my planning and strategy this time.

My distance so far is 16,096.79km. The 40,075km lap of the world has 23,978.21km left. I am a little over 40 percent of the way round. I mention the numbers first because the same thinking runs through the streak and my business. Long goals need regular, honest reviews.

Why a 90-day quarter needs a pause

Many business owners and entrepreneurs work in quarterly sprints. You set targets for the year, split them into quarters, then into months. Plenty of evidence suggests quarterly sprints are an effective route to your goals, and I plan this way myself.

Weekly plans mostly go to plan. Monthly plans you predict with fair accuracy. A quarter behaves differently. Ninety days is long enough to move a business a significant distance. Ninety days is also far enough away for plenty to go wrong. Both statements are true, so I plan for both.

What the quarter looked like

Some things have gone well this quarter. A few curveballs caught me out badly. At one point I was thinking everything was going wrong.

I want to be honest about how this feels. Inside the day to day, a problem looks larger because I see nothing else. I react to the next issue, then the next, and I stop planning. I am coping instead of deciding.

What the break changed

I try to take a break in the middle of every quarter. Sometimes this is a holiday. Sometimes it is a few days off work. The point is to leave the norm and sit in a different environment, where my mind clears.

From Andorra I looked at the whole quarter from above. I saw what had worked, what had not, and where I had been reacting instead of choosing. I came away with several ideas, plans and contingencies for the difficulties I had met. I do not believe I would have produced them by staying in the day to day.

A break does not fix a problem. The problems are still waiting when I return. What changes is my position when I meet them. I return with a plan instead of a reaction.

How I use the time

I do not treat the break as rest alone. I come back to three questions. What has gone well? What caught me out? What is my contingency for each difficulty? Then I look again at what I have achieved this quarter and where I want to go in the next one.

Booking the break early helps. Once a quarter gets busy, there is always a reason to skip, and the busiest quarters need the pause most.

Signs I look for

Some signs tell me a quarter needs a pause. Every conversation drifts to the same problem. I answer messages faster but finish less. I struggle to say in one sentence what the quarter is for. If you recognise any of these, the day to day has taken over from the plan.

The streak runs on the same logic

My daily run is the smallest version of this idea. Every day I step out of the day to day for a while, in barefoot-style shoes, and my thinking resets. The streak carries on wherever I am, and day 2089 is part of this trip.

A mid-quarter break is the same habit at a larger scale. I am planning a streak with a 16.5-year vision. Plans of this length drift unless I check them. Consistency matters more than intensity, and consistent review is part of consistency.

Why this matters beyond my business

This vlog is part of my mission to raise £1M for children's causes, including Great Ormond Street and BBC Children in Need. I am attempting the ultimate ultra-marathon of run-blogging, a lap of the world, 40,075km, one day at a time. The more people who watch, the more I hope to raise. I owe those people a plan I have thought through, not one I have reacted my way into.

If you run a business and plan in quarters, put a break in the middle of your next quarter. Decide the dates now. Watch episode 2089 for the full story, follow the daily vlog, and tell me in the comments how you review your own quarter. I will reply to the questions relevant to the topic.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/21ztiI1-z5Y