What do you do if your workload is overwhelming and you need to manage your time effectively?

The scenario is something which is non evitable at times, the best way i think to cope up with this kind of scenario is to talk to your family, your spouse, your elders. The moment they understand the scenario and show affection, you will be able to deliver the best and as soon you finish the task plan holiday! Again, do like to mention every situation have its own beauty, so admire it!

I believe this is a very common scenario, and not just for managers, Service Desk analysts, for example, usually find themselves struggling to prioritize their workload, however from that example, comes a solution, I agree with having a methodology to tackle an extended workload, I′d first list all my to do′s in a simple word document or excel spreadsheet and categorize by impact and urgency, this means taking the time to do it, like actually scheduling some time on your calendar so that you can really analyze each work item (for Service Desk analysts, ticketing tools usually do this for you ;)) and with that list, you can actually set personal deadlines to deliver your work, that way you can plan ahead and focus on priority one situations.

No meu caso, precisava elencar as atividades que tinha que fazer, colocava numa agenda, priorizada por urgencia, importancia e a necessidade de ser feita por mim. Aquelas que poderiam ser delegadas, eram passadas para alguém da equipe as demais eu fazia, optando pela urgência e/ou importancia. Quando se "coloca no papel" fica mais fácil de tomar a decis?o por qual come?ar.

Lembre-se: você tem família, vida fora da empresa, mas precisa cumprir com suas metas e pra isto precisa ter uma agenda organizada. Planeje o que irá fazer durante o dia, priorize as tarefas que sua participa??o é imprescindível, delegue outras. Reuni?es que você irá conduzir, as fa?a de maneira mais objetiva possível. O que me ajudou muito, quando estavam, numa grande multinacional, para este planejamento e prioriza??o foi o Método GTD de produtividade do autor David Allen.

As with any project, creating and planning actions, should always obey to specific objectives, a general one would be to reduce your pending items backlog by a specific %, but a specific one would be to effectively complete 100% of the tasks associated with pending items that share those tasks, sort of like completing dependencies that would impact on more than 1 item. If that′s too specific, the idea is to carefully look at what you have to do and organize your efforts in a way that will make you leverage your progress in an item to complete other items more easily, and planning your actions give you a detailed vision of them so that you can use critical thinking to make sure you take the best courses of actions, it takes practice.

Uma boa rela??o com a equipe, é o primeiro passo para estabelecer uma comunica??o clara, direta e assertiva. Mantenha reuni?es rápidas do que precisa ser feito, como que espera de cada um e inclusive a sua participa??o nisto. Nos dias seguintes, veja o que foi feito e continuem os trabalhos. Sabendo como as atividades est?o sendo executadas e controladas, as expectativas est?o dominadas e frequencialmente sabe-se o que esta dentro do prazo, se esta aproveitando o tempo, se precisa priorizar.

It′s always important to make sure that people you work with are aware of what you′re doing, it′s very easy for people to believe that you′re wasting time even if you are working at a 200% of your capabilities, and let′s face it, we have all been there at least once, but the key to avoid this is communication, and not only that if you can even come prepared with your previously crafted plan to tackle your work items in a specific way and ask your boss for feedback, more likely than not, he/she will provide valuable tips that will help you be more efficient as that is precisely what they require, while also showing that you care, for clients it′s crucial to keep them informed as they usually calm if they are aware that you are aware.

Como gestor, você precisa aprender a delegar algumas atividades e deixar a equipe capacitada para entregar os resultados sem que você foque 100% do tempo cobrando ou acompanhando. é um exercício diário, requer aprendizado para ambos os lados, administrar a ansiedade e dar devolutiva para a equipe com as entregas. Se o que foi combinado ou pedido foi entregue no prazo, está tudo certo. Com isto, o gestor tem tempo mais executar outras atividades.

A beautiful way to get things done is to delegate, but to delegate is not the same as ordering your people around, it means that you will take the time to assign specific tasks to specific team members and explain the what, the why and the how as well as clarify any doubts they may have so that you can get the best possible outcome, and also be open to provide feedback if they need it, it may sound scary but when a team gets mature enough, the times to explain expectations and even the feedback sessions duration will surely reduce.

There are always lessons learned, so finishing a group of pending tasks will most likely give you a chance to reflect on what you expected, what actually happened and what could have been performed better, so I usually set up 15 minutes to 30 minutes after I finish a project (filled with tasks) to reflect on that, having a retrospective (alone or even better with your team if applicable) helps build ways of working and Knowledge bases that can be leveraged to be more effective, so the idea is to document everything (if you are not working with a team is almost like writing a journal that you can come back to in the future to look for answers, and also find opportunities to improve (that should also be documented).