Work in a startup is typically dominated by the short term, the urgent. Every day is so busy that it can be impossibly difficult to think about the longer term, the bigger picture. Short term survival is the priority.

But how can one move away from this survival mode, to a state of mind which is focused on the longer term, without losing track of the shorter term?

Cadences

A good starting point is to think about the natural rhythms of your work. I personally always looked at work in terms of days, weeks and quarters. You could also think about months and years - whichever cadences feel more natural to you. With these distinct cadences in mind - are you able to think about each of these both individually and collectively?

For example:

Do you dedicate ‘think time’ for each of these cadences? Does your morning routine include planning out your day; have you booked in your calendar a regular time slot to prepare your week; do you schedule end-of-year planning sessions for the following year?
When you do think at a certain level, do you put this thinking in the context of higher levels? When planning your week, ask yourself how this week’s work will help you achieve your monthly or quarterly goals; when deciding on quarterly objectives, verify how they fit within your annual targets
Do you also dedicate time to ‘look backwards’? Monthly reviews can be scheduled to prepare for board meetings; quarterly reviews can be organised for your teams and projects; a department-wide end of year retrospective can make for a great end (or start) to the year
Organise not just your calendar, but also your To-Do list, to reflect that your work and thinking is organised along these several cadences. For example: have a clear event loop which includes distinct, periodic events for each of these frequencies
If a lot of this isn’t already happening, consider picking just a couple of shorter cadences to start with - and gradually stretch yourself to cover the longer time frames

Why?

Dedicating time and effort into thinking about these different time-frames (each of which is really a different level of context) helps building the ability to smoothly move from the smaller to the bigger picture, and vice-versa. This ability to ‘zoom in and out’ can genuinely help you give better context - not just to your work but also to your colleagues, guiding them into making better, more purposeful decisions.