Overflowing Files

Inch by inch, anything is a cinch

Robin, accounting manager for an aggregate and paving company in Redmond, Oregon, told session seven of the Leadership Development Lab:

“My position generates a lot of paperwork: payroll reports, subcontracts, billings, etc. The part of my job I hate the most is filing! I will use any way possible to avoid it. One of my latest strategies has been to pawn it off to our scale clerk to complete between trucks.

“Unfortunately, when our business began to slow down this fall our scale person was laid off at the end of October. Three months later, by the middle of January my filing stack had grown to about three feet high. When I walked into my office the day after session three of the Leadership Development Lab where I received my red dot, I knew that filing was the task I had been procrastinating and I needed to accomplish. I applied 5X More Enthusiasm (for me, 5X more than zero) and in less than a week I had reduced my three foot stack down to about a one inch stack. It’s amazing how easily I can find things now!

“The lesson I learned from this experience is not to let my ‘mole hills’ become mountains.

“The action I call you to take is take care of the little things before they become overwhelming.

“The benefit you will gain is you will save time doing small tasks now instead of putting them off until they grow out of control. You will also benefit from not getting stressed out over the potential avalanche towering over your desk.”

Many years ago I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with W. Clement Stone, President of the Combined Insurance Company of America and author of the life changing books The Success System That Never Fails and Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. I was the master of ceremonies for a non-profit annual fund raising dinner where I introduced him as the key note speaker. He was inspirational and motivational. One point he made with impactful delivery so dramatically that even though it was over 30 years ago I can still see him in my mind’s eye as if it were yesterday. He said if you wish to be improve your performance and make success a habit. Make these words and the behaviors that follow your motto – “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” How often do we hear statements like, “That can wait,” “Do we have to do it now?” “Mañana,” and “I guess I will get around to it later.” One of the predictors of your success is your ability to do what needs to be done NOW!