March is a month for spring cleaning. In a literal sense, this includes cleaning up the physical space we work in. The piles of paper, extra gear, clutter, etc. A little focused effort can quickly re-establish order and clarity. A similar phenomenon happens with our work tasks and commitments. We get caught up in cycles of doing, bouncing from crisis to crisis or good idea to good idea, with the residue of that effort piling up around us. We take on more and more, without shedding any of the old or pausing to reflect and assess. Moreover, our increasingly heavy load can blind us to opportunities and threats emerging around us.
Let’s address this. What might a spring cleaning of your work tasks look like? Are there commitments you could shed? Are there wiser ways to invest your energy?
Call to Action
Do a spring cleaning in terms of your work tasks. Start with a time audit, listing out how you are using your time—walk yourself through a typical day and week. Then, do a “stop-doing” brainstorm (“What if I/we stopped doing…”), listing out at least ten stop-doing ideas. Finally, select one and experiment with stopping it this month.
If you are like me (Randy), you might read this article with some skepticism. It may not feel like you have any control over your schedule or what you can choose to say “no” to. If I were able to speak to my younger self, I would recommend guarding against self-induced busyness. Be honest with yourself about things you can cut back on or stop doing that really are in your control. Your unit will take every minute if you let it. Actively hunt for and creatively find the small things you can control.
“Instead of asking how many tasks you can tackle given your working hours, ask how many you can ditch given what you must do to excel…Do less, then obsess.”
MORTEN HANSEN, GREAT AT WORK
With one organization I (Tony) worked with, we did a “stop doing” exercise. The 30 leaders in the room racked their brains and could not come up with anything. Then one leader said, “Well, there is this report I build and submit to a sister agency once a month. I spend at least 90 minutes a week on it, around 8 hours a month. I have never received any feedback on it. I don’t even know if that agency reads it!” The boss of the group spoke up with conviction:
“Stop doing it!”
And it’s not just that leaders like this get the hours back; they have an opportunity to gain back a sense of purpose that is sapped doing work with no mission relevance. When you invest time in meaningless activities, it drains you and negatively effects other parts of your work.
Moreover, open bandwidth allows leaders to look around and notice what is emerging in the rapidly changing environment around them. People won’t notice opportunities or threats if they are maxed out.
Are you (and/or your team) maxed out? What will you stop doing?
Three questions to ask about tasks you could stop doing:
1. Does this task directly and meaningfully contribute to our mission and/or top priorities?
2. Is there something more important that this task prevents us from doing well?
3. What are the repercussions of no longer doing this task? How can we mitigate that?
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Conclusion
Part of leadership is discerning what matters most and investing time and resources into those things. Another part of leadership, which we have focused on here, is actively choosing to stop doing things that matter less. From one perspective, it is simple math: if you want to have time to do—or even to notice—what matters, you must stop doing things that don’t. This is the disciplined work of leadership that creates the conditions for excellence.
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