More Slack Time, Please!

I'm all about getting things done. This means that daily, even hourly, I'm putting things on my to-do list, checking them off, delegating actions, following up on delegated actions, moving projects forward, starting new projects, maintaining existing projects, running to meetings, accepting new actions from those meetings, planning sprints, attending standups, completing story testing—all while responding to email, chat threads, texts, phone calls, and voicemails. Like most of us, my days and weeks easily and quickly fill up with tasks.

While delivering results is expected (and what we get paid for), there is a consequence to this fast-paced, results-only focus. In short, it can severely limit our ability to think, to grow, and to change. In his book Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency, Tom DeMarco captures this behavior nicely:

We live in an age of acceleration. Whatever the formula was for business success a few years ago, it won't work today. Today there needs to be more and more work crammed into less and less time. There are few people doing more and doing it faster in less space with less support and with tighter tolerances and higher quality requirements than ever before. There is no time for analysis, invention, training, strategic thinking, contemplation or lunch.

As we seek and achieve efficiency, we eliminate "slack time"; after all, slack is waste, right? If I'm not producing tangible output, then I must be on a worthless "idle" mode, correct?

No, absolutely not! By "slack" I mean purposeful time to allow our brains individually and our organizations collectively to create, think, reflect, analyze, contemplate, plan, learn, grow, and change. It's the downtime required to allow you or your organization to breathe.

Here are some ideas for building more slack time into your own or your company's routines:

• Take a look at those sprints. Are they continually back to back with no time in between for team learning or process or technology improvements?
• Be intentional by putting time on your calendar for research, reading, and attending learning events such as courses, conferences, or web seminars.
• Determine when and how you are most creative. What environment? What time of day? Then purposefully set aside some quiet time in those ideal conditions.
• Ask people in your organization how many times a week they feel like they have tasks scheduled back to back. Brainstorm together about whether any meetings can be consolidated or eliminated, and think about organizing some collective company slack time.
• Evaluate the amount of time you and your team are spending delivering results versus thinking about the next innovation. Allocate some time for creativity to encourage improvements.

All of the above suggestions are obvious. The challenge is having the discipline to act and the courage to intentionally create slack.

Slack is the fuel that drives our abilities to innovate, evolve, and change for the benefit of ourselves and our customers. Start slacking today!