3 Tips for Managing Your Overwhelming Workload - Features _ MyStarjob

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25/02/2015 3 tips for managing your overwhelming workload - Features | myStarjob.com

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Wednesday February 25, 2015

3 tips for managing your overwhelming

workloadBy HETAL DOSHI - SUHANA DASWANI

[email protected]

Imagine this: whilst trying to beat the insane traffic, you get a phone call from a sick

colleague who needs you to cover for her.

After the arduou s ta sk o f finding that car park lot, you bump into your boss who

casually informs you of the three new meetings for the day.

As you switch o n your computer and you watch your 50 emails being downloaded , you

know the vicious cycle is about to kick in you begin to wonder how 2015 could

possibly be a better year!

Piling workloads, pending deadlines and dependent people? Youre not alone. Real or

perceived high workload will inevitably impact ourselves and the people around us.

In a recent online survey by Regus, it was found that 33% of Malaysians feel they are

living with extreme stress and 48% feel that their stress has increased over the past

five years. The perceived stress affects their sleep (48%), their relationships at homeNext >>

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(54%), their well-being (73%) and most significantly, their health (77%).

With the existence of time famine and time being the new money, you could either

allow time-consuming workload to crush you, or gain the right attitude, knowledge and

skills to conquer it. Amongst many workload-against-time tips, here are my top three

life changing ones:

1) The before breakfast ritual

Growing up, I would constantly

find excuses as to why I was

unable to complete tasks which

my mom had asked me to do.

She would say, Hetal, if the

President of the United States of

America can run the entire

country, Im sure you can find

time to buy that bag of potatoes

for me.

So really now, isnt it amazing

how some people are able to do

it all and still look reasonably calm and composed?

Laura Vanderkam spent time gaining insight into the schedules of CEOs and wrote her

observations of their typical morning rituals in her book What the most successful

people do before breakfast. Here, she discovered that the secret to it all was as simple

as giving your mornings a makeover. She also found out that on average, they were

waking up between 4.30am and 5am.

Research by Harvard biologist Christoph Randler discovered in 2008 that early risers

were more proactive, thought long term and felt more in charge. Furthermore, those

who arrive at the office before their colleagues say they relish that first hour or two that

provides quiet, uninterrupted time to focus.

In a recent personal experiment of making over my mornings to cater to the sudden

expansion of our business, Ive found that a few simple changes have allowed me to

not only get more done, but a higher sense of control.

Ive also created a no-choice-at-all system, but to wake up only an hour and a half

earlier and get going with three things well-taken care of by the time work starts:

1. My meals for the day and a quick workout

2. Address all follow ups from the previous day

3.Work on one big elephant.

I end up walking into my working day feeling like the song that goes, Ive got the

power!

2) What achievement is and isnt

During our training sessions, we tend to question who are achievers and who arent?

Achievement isnt about what you do, how long you take to do it, n or about how much

effort you put into doing it its about whether it has been done and how well its been

done.

In an activity about achievement, participants are asked to complete a maze within 15

minutes.

About 95% of the time, participants would have high will to complete the task, they

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would scramble, put in ginormous

amounts of effort, scratch their

heads and search for a hundred

different options. The scenario is

one of chaos and frenzy at the

end of which there would be

minimal success.

I would then ask the question

How could you have actually

completed this task within fiveminutes?

With great, clear outcomes and

time-based questions in mind,

comes great solutions and therefore actions. Just by thinking, they were able to

complete the exact same task again, but within three minutes.

Research by renowned professor of psychology and behavioural economics Dan Ariely

suggests that setting strict deadlines leads to better and more consistent performance

than setting generous or zero deadlines. In fact, when more time is allotted to

complete a task, people can end up creating a mountain out of a molehill.

What this simply means is before you start on your pile of heavy workload or a heavy

task, ask yourself the powerful question, What is the one big elephant that I need to

focus on in order to complete this task within xyz time?

3) Avoid saying No

Nick Taranto, co-founder of Plated.com says, You can only cut so many pieces from

the pie. Work-life balance means making decisions around where, who and what

youre going to sacrifice because you cant do it all.

A lot of other books and research would also strongly suggest saying No to tasks

when you are overloaded. However, Ive come to learn from personal experience not

to.

After all, if th ey could fly a man to the moon, Im sure we can sort out most other

requests. Do you remember the last time someone said No to you? How did you feel

and what reactions did it evoke within you?

Whilst we may have grown to be adults and have learnt well to manage our emotions

better (well, some of us, anyway), internally, when we are refused, our feelings parallel

that of a child whose mom refused to give a sweet!


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I like to think of high workload not as a threat to you which you react to, but something

that you can respond with creative solutions. So, rather than saying No, Ive learned

a few counterintuitive new tricks:

1. Delegate effectively downwards or sideways

2.Suggest an alternative or even better do-able

3. Refer on to someone else who would definitely love to help

4. State what you can do rather than what you cant

5. Pay for it to be done

6. Re-prioritise and do take this on if its a high potential opportunity

7. Do it, but extend the timeline using a logical explanation.

Of course, if youre dealing with a complete pushover, go right on and give them a big

fat No!

All in all, doing a makeover of your time, investing time in smart elephan t strategies,

and thinking creatively should help you conquer most workload-against-time

challenges.

Hetal Doshi Suhana Daswani is a professionally qualified organisational psychologist,

certified professional coach, and the founder of O Psych Sdn Bhd, with an expertise in

work performance, team dynamics and emotional intelligence. To get in touch with her,

drop an email to [email protected] .

***

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10 ways coaching improves managerial performance

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3 Tips for Managing Your Overwhelming Workload - Features _ MyStarjob