Help, I'm Drowning!

“Help, I’m drowning” Have you ever uttered these words? Or have you had a friend who has uttered these words? It's a feeling that you need to experience to really understand. Everyone is busy, but busy to the point of paralysis is not only unnerving, but can lead to anxiety, lack of motivation and burn-out.

 It was a typical Monday morning. I had spent the better part of the weekend trying to understand and organize my to-do list. To do this I had covered my dining room table with sheets of paper and attempted to write down everything that needed to get done on all the projects I was managing. This list turned out to be 4+ pages long and all I could do was look at it. I had no idea where to start. While I felt better that I wrote it all down, I was absolutely paralyzed as to how to begin to tackle it. Not to mention that I had a calendar packed with meetings that meant my time available to actually be productive was minimal. I was drowning, and every week the list got longer. Even with working longer hours and weekends, I felt like there was no way to get ahead.

When you are faced with a crushing workload, how do you decide what to tackle first?

A good place to start is with the Eisenhower Box. If you read The 7 habits of Highly Effective People you are probably aware of this method already.

 The Eisenhower box is a basic 4 box matrix, divided into the following categories; Important and Urgent, Important but Not Urgent, Not Important but Urgent and Not Important & Not Urgent.

Box #1: Important and Urgent

This box is reserved for the most urgent and important tasks. This could be items like pending deadlines, a family emergency, and certain phone calls or e-mails.

Items in this box should be planned for, prioritized and managed if possible

Box #2: Important but Not Urgent

This box is focused on the things that create a well-rounded-fulfilling life. Nurturing personal relationships, family time, weekly planning and time management tasks, self-care, travel, and personal financial management.

Ideally, the bulk of your time should be spent here.

Box #3: Not Important but Urgent

This box contains items that require our attention now, but don’t contribute to the overall goals we are trying to obtain. They include most routine work tasks, e-mail, phone calls, requests from extended family and friends for a favor.

Items in this box are easily confused with items in box #1. Many people spend the bulk of their time working in box #3. It’s an easy thing to do, since many tasks in box #3 are real, and can be checked-off when complete.

Try to shed tasks that pile up here. Some tips for doing this are noted below.

Box #4: Not Important & Not Urgent

This box contains activities that act as distractions. These can be watching TV, surfing the internet, playing video games, etc. People often spend time here to “relax”. That’s OK as long as it doesn’t distract you from the other boxes.

This box shouldn’t be eliminated, just limited.

Before you start, print out a free matrix or make your own. Then set aside some time and start to work that long to-do list into the matrix. This exercise take a little bit of time, but can be profoundly clarifying. Many people think they are spending their time in the Green boxes, but often the bulk of their time is spent in the Orange.

Now that you know…. Time to really prioritize, delegate, schedule, ask for help and stop doing things which aren’t important, nor urgent.

 Do: Learn how to say "no" nicely. Many people that are in this situation have a hard time with this word. "No" isn't a bad word. In fact "No" can be a liberating word if you master its power. It all comes down to how you say it and what you do to back it up.

Do: Understand your current workload and be ready to gently push back when approached to take on another task. Try using language such as "if I prioritize this task then (other) task will slip a week, are you OK with that?"

 Do: Ask for Help. This is another difficult thing to do. Many people feel that by the time you explain the task to a colleague, you could have completed it yourself. While that may hold true for a few select tasks, the majority of things can actually be delegated quite successfully. Once you free yourself from the "do" portion and start leveraging those around you, you will find that the to-do list starts magically moving again. Hearing "I took care of that" is a beautiful thing!

Do: Provide real expectations for time frames. If someone asks how fast you can turn this around and you know that it will be 3 weeks before you even look at it, tell them a realistic time frame, even if it is 6 weeks out.

Do: Manage e-mail. Don’t let e-mail overwhelm. E-mail is a great tool, but reading and responding to all those never ending messages takes time. Set time parameters for e-mail.

Do: Criticize meeting requests. I've worked in companies that scheduled meetings upon meetings, often they had no formal agenda or reason for occurring. Some occurred weekly and the same things were discussed over and over again. "We jokingly called them "ground hog" meetings". In reality, they were a waste of time and no one wanted to say it. Don't accept meeting requests that are not absolutely necessary. Ask yourself, "is this something I need to attend?" and "Will this really take 1 hour?" many times meetings are scheduled for standard blocks, but the discussion does not warrant that amount of time. Your time is precious, keep it! Try not to attend "just because" bringing your laptop into a meeting and doing other work is not only disrespectful, but it limits your ability to follow the meeting content. If you can afford to ignore the meeting, then you shouldn't attend.

 It’s hard to see the sun when you are way underwater, but trust me, it’s still there. Tackling an overwhelming work load can be a challenge. I hope this article provided some useful tips and reminders to help you on your way.

"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."