Tame your workload

I’ve been neglecting this newsletter as I adjust to life in a new country. I do plan to get into a rhythm of posting regularly, but for now I’m going to do as the title suggests: be kind to myself and chalk it up to major life changes!?

One of the kindest things you can do for yourself and your team is to be realistic about just how much you can do at any one time. That has to include space to acknowledge that life outside of work is going to affect your bandwidth at work. If the whole team is consistently maxed out on critical projects, then no one has the capacity to pick up the slack when one member needs to shift their energy to life outside of work for a while... Which is just the tip of the iceberg of negative effects of being consistently maxed out.

Of course I’m not suggesting doing less than you’re capable of doing well. But there's a bit difference between doing as much as you’re capable of doing well and the amount that many workers are regularly asked to do.?

I nearly burnt out in my first few years as a librarian, because I was in a department with a leader who wanted us to “do all the things”. They modeled the behavior of taking on more than is reasonable and then scrambling to barely do “good enough” on everything, and expected that we all follow that example. They talked as though it’s normal to work 60 hour weeks, when our salaries were based on a 40 hour work week.?

I could go on for way too long about how that affected me. Aside from the stress of trying to keep up with unrealistic expectations, I felt entirely inadequate at my job. Trying to juggle too much meant that I never had the time to do a really good job that I could be proud of on anything - everything was just “good enough”. That feeds the imposter syndrome that so many workers experience.?

So how do you deal with this?

If you’re in this situation, you must know that it’s not going to change on its own.?

You have to actively manage your workload to create time for the things that matter most to you. That includes doing the difficult work of getting clear on your goals and priorities and then building strategies to create boundaries to protect those priorities.?

Depending on your role, you may have more or less power over the amount of work that your team takes on. But there are strategies you can use to manage your own workload, including getting better at saying “no”, or at least “not right now”, without getting in trouble!?

This summer, June 4 – July 23, I’m trying out a new small group coaching program focusing on building strategies to manage your workload.?

I designed this program around the curriculum that I developed for a class that I teach at Library Juice Academy. This class is an excellent option for those with a limited budget and those who are more comfortable working in a fully asynchronous format. In the 4 week course, I provide a weekly lecture and exercises, and then there is a discussion board prompt. I comment on discussion posts, but there’s a limit to the amount of individual support available in that format.?

The difference in the group coaching program is that we’ll meet live on Zoom every week for 8 weeks to talk through your challenges and insights.?

Group coaching is different from a class in that the participants set the agenda for discussions. I’ll set the stage by sending out specific exercises each week for you to work through, but I’m not going to be checking your work or insisting that you only discuss the latest exercise. I’ll keep the discussion focused on achieving the goal of building your ability to get your workload under control, but that isn’t always a strictly linear process.

The group program is limited to no more than 10 participants, to make sure that we have space for everyone to get individual attention. Recognizing your busy schedules, the meetings will officially be 60 minutes. But, if more than 5 people enroll, I’ll schedule myself an additional 30 minutes for those who would like a little more discussion. Consider this a beta test to see what timing works best!?

Click through for all of the details and to get signed up.?

And if this is something you’re really interested in, but the scheduling for this one just doesn’t work, I’d love to hear from you. Please let me know what sort of scheduling options would work better for you!

Whether you’re interested in the group coaching program or the Library Juice class, or are comfortable working through this on your own, it’s important to keep in mind that you can’t do everything and be everywhere. It’s crucial to prioritize and defend your time to make room to do work that you can be proud of on the things that are important!