The Weekly Walkabout: Your Chance to Find Flow

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Most Tuesday mornings, I step into my growing space with a cup of tea and no urgent task.

I’m not there to harvest, weed, or fix anything. I’m just there to notice. To see what’s actually happening—not what I think should be. To catch small issues before they become big ones and make a few intentional decisions that shape the flow of the week ahead.

It takes about an hour. Sometimes less. Occasionally more if something needs immediate attention.

And yet, this quiet hour has become the most valuable time in my business—not because it’s productive in the traditional sense, but because it makes everything else flow better.

Why walking beats planning

Most business planning happens at a desk—with calendars, lists, and goals. That’s useful.

But if you’re running a hands-on business like flower farming, desk planning misses something essential: what’s actually happening in your physical space.

You won’t see from your desk that:

• A key path is turning to mud and slowing your harvest

• Weeds are piling up in the wrong spot

• A flower flush is coming early

• A low supply of wrapping paper that needs restocking.

Walkabouts are a core lean production technique—a ritual that grounds you in the reality of your space, not just the theory.

Lean thinking isn’t something you set and forget.

It’s a practice—regular observation, small refinements, continuous flow.

The Three-Part Walkabout

My Tuesday ritual has three stages. They happen in sequence, as I move through space.

1. Walk and Observe

No fixing yet. Just noticing. As I walk through each zone, I ask:

• What’s thriving? What’s ahead of schedule, strong, or flowing well?

• What’s struggling? Where are weeds winning? Which plants look stressed?

• What’s upcoming? What needs attention this week—harvests, successions, prep work?

• What’s in the way? Where is clutter building up? What’s slowing me down?

• What needs to be done? What are the jobs and projects that will add value to the operations?

Taking notes is key - I use a walkabout template on a clipboard or jot things down in my field notebook. The goal isn’t to record everything. It’s to see clearly.

2. Decide and Prepare

After the walkabout, I make a few decisions. Not every decision—just the ones that matter most this week.

• What are the priorities? Usually 3–5 time-sensitive tasks that must happen.

• What needs to be ready? Tools, buckets, orders, supplies—what prep supports smooth execution?

• What can wait? Just as important as deciding what to do is choosing what not to do.

• What one improvement could I test? Not an overhaul. Just a small change worth trying.

This step takes 15–20 minutes. It’s not about plotting every hour—just shaping the direction of the workplan in terms of work to be done straight away, tasks to be done that week or projects to be scheduled.

3. Rethinking

This is the part I value most, the chance to rethink to improve.

• What’s not working? What plan or system made sense last month but isn’t now?

• What can I let go of? What can I eliminate, defer, or delegate—without consequence?

• What does the season need? Am I working with nature’s rhythm, or fighting against it?

This step isn’t about giving up. It’s about staying nimble. Adapting to improve.

When to Do It

I do my walkabout on Tuesday mornings—after my day off on a Monday, before the momentum of midweek builds.

But the best time is the one you can stick to.

What matters:

• It happens weekly (not “when you remember”)

• It happens before the chaos hits

• You can think clearly—without distractions

• It’s consistent enough to become automatic

Some growers prefer Monday for a fresh start. Others like Friday for closure and reflection. There’s no right time—just your time.

What You Don’t Need

You don’t need a fancy system.

My tools: a cup of tea, my phone for notes/photos, a pen, and a field notebook.

You don’t need to document everything. 

Note what’s useful. Let the rest be absorbed by observation.

You don’t need an hour every time.

Some weeks take 30 minutes. Others take longer. That’s fine.

You don’t need rigid rules.

If the three-part structure doesn’t fit—change it. If you skip a week, pick it back up. The ritual exists to support you, not bind you.

The compound effect improves

What happens when you do this week after week?

• Small issues get caught before they grow

• Decisions get easier—you’ve already seen what matters

• You build better systems—not through massive effort, but micro-improvements

• You learn to read your land like a book

• The chaos softens—not because there’s less to do, but because you’re ahead of it

 One calm hour a week can prevent 10 frantic ones later.

The real value

The weekly walk-through isn’t about productivity.

It’s about alignment—between your plans and your space, your intentions and what’s real.

You can make beautiful winter crop plans. But unless they reflect the actual rhythm of your field, they’ll fail you.

This ritual is where mental models and physical reality meet. Where you stop fighting how things should be and start working with what is.

And that?

That’s where real flow begins.

Want to go walkabout yourself?

Start small.

• Pick a day and time this week

• Walk your space—with no goal except to notice

• Make three decisions about what really matters this week

• Let go of one thing that doesn’t

• Do it again next week

That’s it. That’s the practice.

A small ritual with a steady rhythm builds cumulative clarity and continuous improvement. One hour that makes every other hour work better.

Written by: Julie Treanor - Owner of The Pickery and co-creator of The Floral Business Activator.   A seasonal flower grower who learned that the most productive hour is often the one spent not producing anything at all.

Follow Julie on Instagram @thepickery