Divided focus
Focusing on one task at a time until completion helps reduce what Sophie Leroy, associate professor of management at the University of Washington, calls "attention residue"; the way that having multiple tasks and obligations on our mind splits our attention in a way that reduces overall performance.
"If you have attention residue, you are basically operating with part of your cognitive resources being busy, and that can have a wide range of impacts – you might not be as efficient in your work, you might not be as good a listener, you may get overwhelmed more easily, you might make errors, or struggle with decisions and your ability to process information."
Each person's routine of life admin is different, and it can often be counterproductive to try imitating another's GYLIO list (Credit: Getty Images)
While we can't remove distractions from our lives, taking a minute to create a 'ready to resume list' and plan a return to a task – like scheduling a GYLIO session – is one strategy for reducing attention residue. "Asking how and when you going to attend to a task reduces uncertainty and improves self-efficacy," says Leroy.
Bolte's partner, engineer Peter Fisher, 29, says he knows when it's time to clear his to-do list backlog. "If you are organised enough to do a little bit every day, that's great, but for me it builds and I realise I've got to get in and clear the decks," he says. "It's not often fun, but I always feel relieved when I do make the time."
Whether you call it an admin morning, a ' or GYLIO, bundling small, unrelated chores can be a useful tool for making the invisible, visible. "It also gives people a language to talk to other people, which can contribute to the visibility," says Emens. And if you're a couple, it could even be a great way to share the load. "I think it would be especially great to do a GYLIO day together, so one person isn't picking up the extra slack," comments Emens.
I wondered if a GYLIO day could have positive ramifications on my adult life, too. Without the external support of a university residence, it might be harder for working people to take GYLIO time – but perhaps all the more crucial. Journalist Anne Helen Petersen named ', with an 'always on' culture leaving little energy for the smaller tasks.
Don't crowd the list
To kick off my GYLIO experiment, I made an extensive list of every task I'd been avoiding. Yet I fell at the first hurdle: picking the day to do all these tasks, as other events and deadlines competed for my attention.
Student president Henri Currie recognised my rookie error; overcrowding the list made it too daunting. "In my first year, GYLIO week ended up being stressful because I had too much to do," she recalls. An ambitious list can also create a build-up of attention residue. "If you are going to put 22 items on your to-do list but not actually move into action, your brain is going keep thinking about those 22 things that are not done," says Leroy.
It was also advised that I make GYLIO my own; a high-tech approach to life admin, for example, could work for some but not others. "We all have different preferences for dealing with life admin," says Emens. "If you just try to take someone's schedule for GYLIO that may not help you unless that person is really similar to you in their preferences."
To reset, I decided to limit my GYLIO to an hour and wrote a more modest list. I noticed a theme in my tasks – call the accountant, book a check-up with the dermatologist, reply to three text messages and a WhatsApp voice message, send thank-you cards – so I set up a communication morning, giving focus and clarity to my agenda.
By 09:00 the next morning, I had a spring in my step. I found telling myself that I was "getting my life in order" had the positive reinforcement of feeling like my life was in order – spurring me on to make my next GYLIO list.
'Attention residue' describes the way our attention is split when we have multiple tasks or obligations on our plate, reducing our overall performance (Credit: Getty Images)
Emens cautions that there are downsides of GYLIO – including giving you the illusion that you can take care of all your life admin in a day. "Sometimes you can't control when it needs to happen and you might be waiting on other people in order to take the next step," she says.
Another caveat is that GYLIO might encourage people to put off onerous tasks until they have a full list. Here, Emens recommends bypassing the to-do list altogether if you can. "Email someone the information she wants while she's still standing there – so it never goes on your to-do list," she offers as an example.
Emens believes we need to find the balance between getting life admin done and safeguarding our wellbeing. "We have to recognise that these obligations are real and not invented and yet it is also true that if we don't sometimes put the self-care first, we will never get to it," she says.
In my case, the GYLIO experiment proved that self-care is less about carving out time to relax amid chaos, and more about removing to-dos from our crowded lives. With some life admin cleared away, I had a bubble bath and enjoyed the smug delight of a life – momentarily – in order.
How to reduce 'attention residue' in your life
Start from the beginning
