Cleaning Day

Purpose

The cleaning day is a specific opportunity for our team to focus on cleaning up the things that easily get neglected during our regular work.

Schedule

Cleaning day is normally scheduled for the last workday before the July 4th and Christmas holidays.

The day may be rescheduled one day earlier if there are multiple team members out of office for the normal cleaning day. This is to ensure that as many team members as possible can participate.

If any team member is unable to participate in the cleaning day, they should complete their cleaning day tasks during the next workday.

Activities and Priorities

During cleaning day, we focus on the following, in this order:

1. Office Cleanup

   • Declutter and organize your desk

   • Declutter your entire office

   • Clean surfaces that get missed during regular cleanings

2. Computer Cleanup

   • Get to inbox zero in your email

   • Delete unneeded downloads and use a tool like CCleaner to clean up temporary files

   • Review and uninstall any software that you no longer use

   • (optional) Update all installed software by running winget upgrade --all in the terminal

3. Linear Cleanup

   • Review all tasks assigned to you, update the status, and question if any seem outdated or irrelevant

   • Review the current list of debt tasks for your team, and add any missing debt tasks

   • (managers) Review all tasks not assigned to anyone on your team, update the status, and question if any seem outdated or irrelevant

     • abandoned (unassigned) "in progress" tasks

     • "stalled" tasks

     • "future consideration" tasks

     • lower priority tasks that often get overlooked

4. Repository Cleanup (managers)

   • Review all repositories owned by your team

     • Clean up any stale branches and pull requests, either resolving them or creating a debt ticket to resolve them during the next debt week

     • Archive any repositories that are no longer in use

After Completion

Managers may decide to allow their teams to leave early after completing cleaning day tasks if the following conditions are met:

1. The cleaning day is the workday directly before a holiday

2. The team has thoroughly completed all cleaning day tasks

3. There are no scheduled meetings for the rest of the day

4. The team has no pressing deadlines that are overdue or at risk of becoming overdue

If any of these conditions are not met, individuals should resume normal work after completing their cleaning day tasks.

If Tasks are Not Completed

If anyone is unable to complete their cleaning day tasks, they should complete them during the next workday.