{"id":13634,"date":"2022-04-05T08:50:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T12:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alifeofproductivity.com\/?p=13634"},"modified":"2022-09-05T16:48:55","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T16:48:55","slug":"6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/","title":{"rendered":"6 immediate strategies to feel less overwhelmed at work"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Takeaway:<\/b>\u00a0It\u2019s possible to catch up on tasks without working longer hours. My go-to strategies for feeling less overwhelmed at work: list out your current projects, shift or tackle deadlines when possible, block dedicated work time in your calendar, minimize chronic stress, and schedule time for your mind to wander.<\/p>\n

Estimated Reading Time:<\/b>\u00a02 minutes, 12s.<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

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I haven\u2019t written for my website (and newsletter) as much as I would have liked to lately. This was intentional: I\u2019ve been pouring my writing energy into a book that will come out early next year. (I can\u2019t wait to tell you more about it!)You probably have uniquely busy periods like this too, where you’re hunkered down on an all-consuming deliverable, or are otherwise at capacity and need to make unfortunate tradeoffs.<\/p>\n

In case this is you, I\u2019ll cut to the chase. Here\u2019s a shortlist of strategies I use to combat overwhelm when I\u2019m at capacity with my work\u2014without usually needing to log longer hours.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. List your current projects<\/strong>. Once I reach my limit, I almost always spend more time planning. I start by making a list of every project I\u2019m in the middle of. Doing this, you\u2019ll likely find that no two items on your list are equally important or urgent. Prioritization is so valuable during busy times and stepping back from less important tasks during crunch times is crucial. After making my list, I see if there\u2019sanylessmeaningfultasksI can delegate or drop.<\/li>\n
  2. Beat back deadlines, however you can<\/strong>. After writing my list of projects, I look at the deadlines to see if I can reasonably get them done, while thinking about how much time, attention, and energy I’ll have to dedicate to them. If I noticed a shortage of these ingredients, I try to shift a few deadlines, or think about whether it\u2019s worthwhile to hunker down for a few extra, focused hours to finish them. Sometimes, I spend less time on projects that won’t provide as much return. Writing less for this website while hunkering down on the book was one such unfortunate tradeoff.<\/li>\n
  3. Block off time in your calendar.<\/strong> After determining which of your projects are the most important and urgent, block off a few hours in your calendar to work on them. Scheduling blocks of time to dedicate to specific projects lets you make more significant progress on them.<\/li>\n
  4. Reduce chronic stress, however you can<\/strong>. As I’ve written about before, chronic stress causes burnout. For this reason, during stressful times, I cut back on stress however I can\u2014like by reading less news and not checking social media.<\/li>\n
  5. Schedule scatterfocus time.<\/strong> Scatterfocus is what I call deliberate mind wandering. On the surface, mind wandering sounds like a waste of time, but research suggests the opposite. When our mind wanders, we think about our goals 14x as often as when we\u2019re focused. Intentionality matters more when we\u2019re at capacity because again, not all projects on our list are created equal. On top of this, scatterfocus lets your mind recharge (which makes you more productive later) and gives you the mental space to generate more ideas.<\/li>\n
  6. After minimizing your workload, decide whether you should clock longer hours.<\/strong> When at capacity, a combination of the five strategies above lets me get things under control without working longer hours around 90% of the time. But if I don\u2019t have the time to get everything done and I figure it’s worthwhile to work longer hours, I\u2019ll do it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Keep in mind that a large workload is a significant contributor to burnout. If you’re feeling some combination of exhausted, unproductive, and cynical\u2014the three characteristics of burnout\u2014try cutting back on how much work you have, however you can. Investing in the strategies above can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Triage your tasks to make back time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n6 immediate strategies to feel less overwhelmed at work - Chris Bailey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 immediate strategies to feel less overwhelmed at work - Chris Bailey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Triage your tasks to make back time.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chris Bailey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-05T12:50:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-05T16:48:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/towfiqu-barbhuiya-jOeh3Lv88xA-unsplash-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1619\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Bailey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/chris_bailey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@chris_bailey\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Bailey\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52e99dd14925b1bfe8c1034b8d40ed70\"},\"headline\":\"6 immediate strategies to feel less overwhelmed at work\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-05T12:50:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-05T16:48:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/\"},\"wordCount\":653,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52e99dd14925b1bfe8c1034b8d40ed70\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/towfiqu-barbhuiya-jOeh3Lv88xA-unsplash-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Productivity\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chrisbailey.com\/6-immediate-strategies-to-feel-less-overwhelmed-at-work\/\",\"name\":\"6 immediate strategies to feel less overwhelmed at work - 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