A companion piece to our Quote of the Week on Getting Things Done.
There’s so much to do. So many new ideas. So many possibilities. No way to do it all.
What if we could leave some things undone and feel okay about it? What if we could feel great about it? What if we could feel like a noble and masterful artist? What if we could help members of the team do the same? Could be a big boost for morale and productivity.
Here’s a salute to a few Undone Heroes – real people leaving real things undone.
1. Sally has usually completed the incomplete paperwork turned in by sales reps. A zip code here, an address there. A price here, sales tax there. She felt it would be easier to correct it instead of sending it back. Despite reminders she included in the sales newsletter, the errors and omissions seemed to be getting worse instead of better, which meant it was taking her lots of time. It hit her last week that the situation would never improve unless they had to make the corrections themselves. So she left the work undone – saving approximately 5 hours this week alone.
2. Jane made three goal tracking charts for her sales team. She made a few errors and came close to re-doing them. But decided she was being too perfectionistic. For her in-house purposes, they were just fine. She left the re-do undone and saved an hour.
3. John left a committee meeting “undone”. He liked the people and enjoyed the lively discussions. But nothing ever came of their work. So this week, when John had far too much to do, he decided not to attend the meeting. Saving him 4 hours.
4. Sam was preparing for a staff meeting. He thought about making an Excel spreadsheet to show progress toward the goal but decided a quick hand drawn chart on the marker board(a la UPS man) would work just as well. So he left the spreadsheet undone and saved himself an hour.
5. Terry’s membership in a trade association included a subscription to a monthly magazine. The last 24 issues sat in her reading stack. Untouched. She didn’t feel good about leaving this undone. It was good material. She just didn’t have time. So when it came time for Terry to pay $399 annual dues, she left it undone. For now anyway until she can get caught up with her reading and be in a position to benefit more from her membership.
6. Christy received an emotional (and a bit nasty) email from her colleague, Chris. After spending about 10 minutes trying to write a response, she stopped and decided to leave it undone. Instead she picked up the phone and called Chris.
7. Mary planned to make cupcakes for the office pot luck lunch but she got a rare opportunity to have dinner with her son and daughter-in-law. So she left the homemade cupcakes undone and instead made a quick visit to her neighborhood bakery.
8. Lucy was one of 30 board members on a volunteer board. Lucy prepared for board meetings by printing the agenda, studying budgets, attachments and proposals and highlighted key points. This week it hit her that given her role, she was over-preparing. She left her normal process undone and simply skimmed the material on her computer screen. This served as sufficient preparation and she saved 2 hours.
Eight Undone Heroes!
They left something undone and it all worked out okay. And in most cases, turned out even better. Perfect demonstrations of the nobler art of leaving things undone.
Got any more stories? Send ’em on!
Jan works with leaders to boost morale, productivity, engagement and overall performance so that they and their teams make their individual and corporate goals.
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