Business Leader Leonard Cagno Launches Personal Pledge to Combat Workplace Overload and Burnout

Leonard Cagno has announced a new personal pledge aimed at addressing chronic overload caused by poor systems, constant context-switching, and lack of clear priorities affecting workers and leaders. Grounded in lessons from aviation, finance, and entrepreneurship, the pledge focuses on simple, repeatable behaviors that restore clarity and calm in daily work. Cagno states that whether flying a plane or running a business, clarity before speed is essential, emphasizing that productivity involves doing the right things in the right order rather than doing more.

The initiative responds to significant workplace challenges documented by organizations like the American Institute of Stress, which reports 83% of workers experience work-related stress, and the World Health Organization, which recognizes burnout as an occupational phenomenon linked to chronic workplace stress. Research indicates frequent task switching can reduce productivity by up to 40%, while employees with clear priorities are more than twice as likely to feel engaged at work. Cagno believes the solution begins with small, personal actions, noting that tools are only as effective as the systems behind them, and adding structure improves overall functioning.

The Leonard Cagno Personal Pledge consists of seven commitments: planning the day before it starts with a short priority list; using a 'must do, should do, nice to do' framework to prevent overload; single-tasking for at least 60 minutes daily with notifications off; running a weekly review to capture successes and failures; protecting one daily reset window for movement, fresh air, or quiet time; documenting decisions and processes to reduce confusion; and ending the workday on time at least three days per week to maintain balance. Cagno commits to these behaviors and invites others to join him.

A free do-it-yourself toolkit enables immediate action without services or purchases, including writing tomorrow's top three tasks tonight, turning off non-essential notifications for one hour, creating a simple checklist for recurring tasks, blocking one focus session on your calendar, standing up and moving for five minutes every two hours, keeping a single notes file for decisions and ideas, asking "What can I stop doing?" once per week, setting clear start and stop times for work, reviewing your week every Friday for 15 minutes, and sharing one process improvement with your team. A 30-day progress tracker helps build momentum: week one focuses on setting priorities daily and completing one weekly review; week two adds single-task focus blocks and documenting one process; week three involves protecting reset time and reducing meetings or notifications; week four reviews results to keep what works and drop what doesn't.