By Janice Molloy
Even the most organized among us has a hidden pile of reading that never gets done, e-mail messages that need sorting or deleting, or files from completed projects that require finishing touches. In the drive to be productive, we often set aside these kinds of tasks for later in favor of more value-creating activities--and then never get to them. If left to accumulate, such mundane chores can turn into major productions--and distractions--that undermine overall effectiveness.
To help employees gain an upper hand on hidden drains on productivity, at Pegasus, we've instituted a semiannual ritual known as "Amnesty Day." We first heard about the concept from contacts at the Citrus Council of Girls Scouts in central Florida. As we have adapted the practice, Amnesty Day is a time for everyone on the staff to "clear the decks" of all the detritus that has accumulated over the past several months in order to move ahead with renewed vitality, energy, and lightness.
Time Out
We schedule Amnesty Day well in advance so people can clear their calendars of any conflicting obligations. On the appointed day, employees arrive at the office prepared to d
eal with the administrative tasks that always get bumped to the bottom of the to-do list. Anything that serves as an impediment to work productivity is fair game. One person may spend the entire day cleaning her office, while someone else catches up on paperwork in the morning and makes long overdue phone calls to potential vendors in the afternoon.
Amnesty Day works best if individuals choose their own priorities and activities. If managers were to assess what they thought each person should accomplish, the impact of the exercise would be diminished. Only you can know your bugaboos, those nagging messes that impede your progress just when you need to jump into high gear.
To avoid diluting the process, we let the answering machine pick up any messages. We send or respond to e-mail only if doing so fulfills one of our personal goals for the day. Another ground rule is that we only talk with each other over lunch. To ensure that everyone has a chance to come up for air and share their experiences with others, we all meet for pizza at noon.
Clarity and Focus
We also scheduled an Amnesty Day several weeks before moving to a new office and spent the time organizing, discarding, and tying up loose ends. Other occasions for scheduling "Amnesty Time"--it doesn't have to be a full day--might be at the conclusion of a major project, in advance of a new undertaking, or before any kind of organizational transition.
We have found that people feel more energized and clear-headed after spending a day tidying up. And each of us has noticed lasting, if incremental, progress on our personal organizational challenges. Over the long run, taking eight hours to get things in order means more time spent on productive functions and less time spent searching through stacks of papers for that one key document!
Janice Molloy is content director of Pegasus Communications and managing editor of The Systems Thinker.
As we struggle to meet today's challenges, we're t
empted to do more with less in our organizations and lives. And yet the key to accomplishing our goals may be to do less with more--more focus, attention, and sense of purpose. In this selection from her book It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys: The Seven-Step Path to Becoming Truly Organized (Viking Compass, 2003), Pegasus board member Marilyn Paul highlights the value of focus as a means to make the most of our precious time and energy.
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Our attention is like a powerful light. We can illuminate what we focus on. Yet with so much to do, so many options, so many goals, it is easy to scatter your energies to the winds and get overwhelmed. You can learn to focus on what you truly want, which begins with knowing what is important to you. This task is lifework. Managing your attention, learning to focus, is a big part of accomplishing what you truly want.
Part of learning to be present is defining your priorities and then staying with them. There are goods reasons not to define your priorities. Perhaps you pile on tasks in order to avoid getting to know yourself and your deepest aspirations. Sherry said, "I am completely busy, I am never home. My schedule is full to bursting. But I am too busy to feel much or to think about the things that are bothering me. Sometimes, I think that's a good thing, but other times I am vaguely aware of a deep fear that is driving me."
Prioritizing strengthens your sense of who you are and what you value. It also sets a virtuous cycle in motion. As you get to know yourself, you find it easier to set priorities. You are not spread so thin, and you see more clearly what has meaning for you.
Sometimes people don't focus when they are working because they feel they don't have the time to concentrate. It's hard to focus because there is so much to do. However, lack of focus leads to poor quality work, which then needs to be redone, which increases the feeling of pressure by adding more to your to-do list. This is a vicious cycle that can be interrupted by learning to focus on what you are doing well.
We have so many choices. When we focus we give ourselves the gift of depth and presence. We can focus on what is important to us, and we can bring our attention to the present moment. Both of these types of focusing will deepen the quality of our lives.
Life is a practice of coming back to the richness of the present moment, and coming back again.