For those few of you following my business exploits, I'm not going in the poorhouse (yet!) Like many professionals nowadays, I'm instead on the lookout for books, tools and processes that will help me ramp up productivity while decreasing the chaos in my life. I should look inward to resolve most of this conflict, and yet I still troll the business section of Barnes and Noble every chance I get.
I've started including a new tool in my productivity-guru-inspired arsenal. A tool of last resort, this atomic bomb of productivity tips instantly cleans your desk and frees your mind of distraction. When I feel myself drowning under the weight of my to-do list, e-mail inbox or some other part of my life, only after careful consideration I throw my hands up in the air and blow it all away in an act of bankruptcy.
Harvard Law professor and creator of the
Creative Commons license,
Lawrence Lessig first popularized this concept back in 2004 when he sent the following automated message to anyone sending him e-mail: "Dear person who sent me a yet-unanswered e-mail, I apologize, but I am declaring e-mail bankruptcy." According to
Wired, Lessig had spent 80 hours sorting out e-mail from the previous two years in the week prior to sending this missive. Lessig had become an Internet celebrity since the days he led the
Justice Department's case against Microsoft for monopolistic practices. This reputation coupled with his crusade for
fair use vs. excessive copyright laws had created a large and loquacious fanbase whose many members had created an untenable backlog of e-mail from which Lessig could not reasonbly respond. After declaring bankruptcy, Lessig promised to respond to anyone sending him e-mail (although he did not promise to do so in a timely manner.)
I've not had to obliterate the contents of my inbox, but I have been known to print out my to-do list (which at its worst grew to five pages of single-spaced type) and cross out any items that don't need immediate attention in the next week. I usually find that several list items have already been completed but not crossed off the list. The sheer length of the list often intimidates me and pruning away any completed and outdated items immediately lifts tension from my shoulders.
I then take off any valid items that lie too far in the future. When I'm struggling to write every day, construct freelance pitches and solicit new corporate writing contracts (not to mention do the laundry, shop, walk the dog and cook,) worrying about the home maintenance project that can't start until summer does me little good. I try to follow the process outlined by David Allen in his
Getting Things Done and place these future-flung items in a folder for the month or day in which the activity should take place. This should take the task out of my daily mental landscape while guaranteeing that I still see it when I need it (as long as I remember to check the folders every day.)
Forgiveness is perhaps the biggest component of my bankruptcy strategy. An anal-retentive overachiever in a slacker's blue hoodie, I kick myself everyday when tasks slide. I eventually just give up and refuse to go in my office when the mess has taken over. When I clear the decks, however, I have a chance to breathe and admit that I can't track everything everyday. Joel Johnson on
43 Folders (hat-tip to
Lifehacker) put it best recently in his
Economy of the Heart:
But instead of trying to browbeat myself back to productivity—
You’re so far behind that you must do double the work!—I just let go...We are imperfect. And loathing yourself or bemoaning your lack of work ethic isn’t actually doing anything, either. It’s just another way to do what you really want to do, which is obviously to do nothing.
Forgive yourself for losing focus.
Then forgive yourself for worrying about losing your focus.
Forgive yourself for making unrealistic goals. Forgive yourself for making goals that aren’t big enough to keep you interested. Forgive yourself for doing work that’s not your best. Forgive yourself for comparing your work to the work of others. Forgive yourself for thinking something other than your work might be fun. Forgive yourself for any single thing you find yourself feeling guilty about.
I recently nuked my old to-do list and started fresh on
Remember the Milk. RTM has been working quite well. I'm still working on the personal forgiveness -- every day.
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