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Leslie Harradine
Are You Comfortable with Space?
Something I have noticed in my work with The David Allen Company is that many people are uncomfortable with space. Space in both their physical environment and in their mind. It seems to make many people feel awkward.
During the Getting Things Done seminar, we do an exercise called the “Mind Sweep”. This exercise is about taking pen to paper and dumping everything out of your head whether it’s big or small, important or unimportant. Anything that you have attention on is to be written down. Usually we take around 10 minutes for this exercise. At the end of the exercise, some people have short lists and some people are still writing. It’s not important how long the list is, it’s important that everything be out of your head. As part of the wrap up for that exercise, I suggest that the participants continue to add things to this list as soon as something pops into their head. I encourage them to start making it a habit to write things down as soon as they become aware of it lurking in their brain. The purpose of this is to be able to think more strategically or proactively rather than reacting to the first thing that pops up in their head (which may or may not be the thing to do at that moment). By writing these things down, it creates the space to do this.
As part of the one-on-one Workflow Coaching I often do a similar exercise. During the two days of coaching, in addition to the Mind Sweep, I have the luxury of clearing out massive amounts of backlogged or unnecessary paper, updating and cleaning files, processing lots of data, setting up systems and re-thinking the configuration of a workspace to make it more conducive for the client's personal style of working. What often appears as the result of processing this stuff is more space. More psychic and physical space. I’ve seen many responses at the moment the client grasps the “space” that has opened up for them. Some people experience a huge amount of relief and freedom. Some people are incredulous that they ever got there and it takes a little time for it to sink in. Some will turn to me and ask, “What do I do with all this space?” My response to them is to not be too eager to fill it up. We have filled our lives with “stuff”…physical, mental and emotional “stuff” which distracts us from being present: present with our co-workers, present with our clients, present with our children and those most important to us. When space opens up, human beings have a tendency to fill it up for many reasons. It could be that those things give us a sense of security or importance. Maybe it helps us feel successful or it’s an indication that our life has value. Whatever the reason (and don’t get me wrong, I love some of that stuff!) many people have misidentified that stuff as who they are. When the space is no longer cluttered, we have an opportunity to make a shift from “doing” to “being”. Being with others and being with ourselves. In the place of being we have an opening to start to create our life rather than react to it. This newfound space takes away excuses and empowers us with creatively and consciously creating our life. If this is unchartered territory for a person it can, indeed, feel awkward.
That’s when I will ask the client, “What is it you would like to experience in this space and what is your next action to move towards that?” It’s at that moment a new journey has begun.
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