Take the pressure off...

Getting an overview of tasks was my focus after a conversation with an overwhelmed friend in November 2010. I talked about some of the changes I used myself when commitments, emails and projects became too much.

Get an overview of tasks instead of just working faster

I used the image of emptying a bathtub with a teaspoon without looking for the plug. For me, it meant examining why the tasks kept coming.

Could something be handed over? Could a project be finished? If the same support questions kept coming up, could the underlying problem perhaps be changed? Also read Min vej som leder about my experiences of prioritising and sharing responsibility in a company.

I started with the calendar

I talk about postponing meetings and asking for a clear agenda before agreeing to new ones. I wanted a better chance to assess what actually required my time.

I also looked at which projects and activities I wanted to continue. I mention some specific things we were considering dropping at Amino back then.

My very blunt clear-out

In the video, I call my approach Operation Clean Table. I wanted to deal with the loose ends on my desk and in my inbox and make room to think.

I used very forceful examples about deleting emails and throwing away paper. This is my historical description of a working method, not an assessment of which documents other people can do without or need to keep.

The video also includes my personal assumptions about stress and massage. They aren’t a medical explanation or a treatment. I describe my thinking in 2010 and don’t establish that my friend’s problems were solved.

Also read about making room to think.

Historical thanks from 2010: Thanks to Endomondo for the free running top. The original website can’t be opened during this review.

A running top, a podcast and an overwhelmed friend

First, thanks to Endomondo for the free running top. I understand it as a running community and refer to the website in the video so people can find out more. Perhaps the trousers will arrive one day, I joke.

I also remind people that my talkshow was available back then on iTunes as a podcast, on thorborg.tv as video and as an MP3 for a smartphone or MP3 player. Those are the options I discuss in 2010.

I’m driving with the roof down, enjoying the lovely evening. Back home, perhaps you’re sitting in Danish sleet. I put up with that for 37 years, so I tease you a little that you can put up with it a bit longer.

About an hour before the video, a good friend called. He was under a hell of a lot of pressure, had repetitive strain injury, wasn’t sleeping well at night and had other problems. He said everyone was pulling at him and wanted all sorts of things.

My view back then: Everything I don’t get done

In the video, I say very categorically that I don’t experience stress as coming from working too much, but from everything I don’t get done. That’s my own view in 2010, and I also say others may disagree.

For me, it’s the things I feel guilty about: Emails in the inbox, papers on the desk and people calling. Feeling you’re not doing enough is really shitty.

I mention exercise and healthy food as things I put a lot of effort into myself. But the conversation with my friend is mainly about what he can do about his tasks. My statements in the video are personal experiences, not a medical explanation of his symptoms.

Find the plug instead of emptying the bath with a teaspoon

All too often, we try emptying the bathtub with a teaspoon without taking time to find the plug. So I suggest setting aside a couple of days to examine the work.

What can be handed over to others? What can you do without? If you have lots of customer support, why are the enquiries coming in? Is something not done properly?

Instead of constantly putting a plaster on the wound, perhaps you can prevent the problem arising. Why do I get the enquiries I don’t like? Can some of them be stopped by changing what causes them?

You’re not as indispensable as you might think

Perhaps you’ve committed to too many projects. Then it’s worth closing some down.

I use a very harsh image in the video: If you end up in hospital for three months, you won’t get anything done either. So don’t overestimate how much the world depends on you.

I provocatively say that if you dropped dead tomorrow, 90 per cent of what you were involved in would continue, while the rest might not matter. That’s my provocation, not a calculation. The Earth doesn’t stop turning because you step away from a task.

Look at what you do, and get out of what you can without losing the things you enjoy or those that bring in the most revenue.

Customers and activities we wanted to drop at Amino

I mention Tim Ferriss’s The 4-Hour Workweek as a book with ideas for having less to do. One example is the idea that a small proportion of customers can take up a large proportion of your time and put you in a bad mood.

I use 20 and 80 per cent to illustrate it. Dropping the troublesome customers can free up time to analyse your best customers and find more like them. The figures are a rule of thumb in my argument, not a breakdown of every company’s customers.

At Amino, we’re deciding at that point that we don’t want any more dealings with the public sector. My experience is that their orders cause hassle, they pay too little and too late, and change their minds repeatedly. I also mention meetings with lots of participants. That’s my very blunt assessment of our experiences back then.

We also want to drop trade fairs and the like. In my view, they take too much energy and deliver too little compared with more Google AdWords and other online activities.

Operation Clean Table starts with the calendar

One of the things I find works best for me is what I call Operation Clean Table.

I start with the meetings in the calendar and cancel more or less all of them. I joke about an exception if Queen Margrethe is coming to give me a big gold order of merit. That could be fun, and perhaps she can’t make another day.

Otherwise, I write to people saying I’m under too much pressure and can’t cope, so we’ll have to postpone the meeting indefinitely.

I also want a precise agenda. If people can’t provide one, I don’t want the meeting. If the agenda doesn’t interest me, they don’t get a meeting either. I say in the video that this can remove a large proportion of meetings because people can’t be bothered to write the agenda.

My provocative way of clearing my inbox and desk

Next, I go through emails one by one and try to give useful answers. I say I delete the emails I’m unsure about.

It’s a little provocative, I know. My experience is that many senders have forgotten the message or solved the problem another way. Again, I use 80 and 20 per cent as a rough illustration: The few who still need something will get back in touch.

Then, in my view, I have more strength and capacity to deal with them, even if some are more annoyed because they haven’t had a reply.

I describe the same blunt clear-out on my desk. Not a single piece of paper should be left. I say I throw away anything I can’t deal with. Some things come back, others don’t, and then I can handle what actually needs me.

This is a historical description of my own working method, not an assessment of which emails or documents other people are obliged to keep. The point of my story is to get rid of loose ends: Cancel, reply, finish and clear up.

Massage gave me space to think

I suggest shutting yourself away for three or four days and getting things done. Then I mention an hour and a half of massage once a week if you can afford it. Perhaps 500 kroner a week, as I say back then.

Lying there having my shoulders and back rubbed and massaged and relaxing brings me good thoughts. That’s where I can spot the plug in the bathtub instead of carrying on with the fucking teaspoon.

That’s my experience of relaxation. I don’t establish that massage treats stress or my friend’s problems.

He found a cause after ten minutes

My friend emailed around ten minutes after our conversation and was enthusiastic. He’d already found one of the causes of some of his everyday problems because he’d leaned back a little and thought.

In the video, I’m very optimistic that the following week he could reduce the work, get a massage and have more energy. I even mention 35 per cent. That’s my hope and expectation at the time, not a subsequently measured result.

What I take from it myself is the need to stop and look at why the tasks keep coming. Sometimes that’s where I find a way forward.

Best wishes, Martin