Do you know anyone who doesn’t feel inundated at work?
Never ending to do lists, too many priorities, too little time to manage people properly, constantly feeling like you are catching up…
It this is you, it is fixable, but the solutions may not lie where you think they do.
As many people begin to plan for 2026/7, now is the ideal time to re-evaluate your and your teams’ workload.
What keeps you frenetic?
1. Perception versus reality
Any leader who has managed a crisis will tell you that when calamity strikes, it becomes very clear what must be ditched or delayed to make room for the immediate situation.
In “business as usual” (BAU) mode, it feels hard to distinguish between what must be done, what could be delayed and what could be dumped?
The difference? Mindset.
In crisis, we MUST reprioritise to survive. In BAU, the consequences of overwhelm feel woolly or unreal.
2. Emotions drive workload
I DON’T mean we feel anxious because we have too much to do.
Our emotional attachment to our frenetic norm feels too strong to break
We are so used to working in frenetic ways, it almost becomes our comfort zone. We bond with others on expressing how busy or tired we are. We avoid the discomfort of making choices about what to do, delay or dump, because making these decisions feel harder than living with the status quo.
We also fear letting others down, and rather than renegotiate priorities, we work ourselves into a frazzle.
The tasks are real, it’s our response to them that causes the overwhelm.
3. Woolly strategy
Admit it. When developing a new strategy, rather than use the opportunity to strip things out, despite our best intentions, we end up adding. And we do so under the cover of poorly crafted goals.
Vaguely articulated strategic goals are like a comfort blanket
- Rather than deal with conflicting views, we word goals so everyone can see their opinions reflected
- We use goals to create consensus, rather a decision making framework
- Making decisions is hard, so (unconsciously) we craft goals so decision making becomes easier or can be avoided all together – “let’s just do it all!”
4. “It’s who I am”
Without meaning to, many of us create our identity around being busy
It gives us a sense of purpose, boosts our self-esteem, gives us reasons to feel others should value us.
How can we address overwhelm?
1. Sharpen your goals
If your strategic goals and priorities are not precisely, specifically defined, rework them until there is complete clarity on what they mean and they give you an unambiguous starting point for defining work plans.
If you are a leader you CAN change goals, even if it feels like you can’t
It sounds easy, and borderline flippant to say “change your goals”. I know from personal experience that this can be one of the hardest things we as leaders do.
Get some external support to challenge your thinking. You are likely to be too mired in the day to day to be able to see the wood for the trees. And sometimes an external voice will be listened to by colleagues and stakeholders who would resist things you might say as a leader.
2. Focus on impact
If you cannot draw a thick, straight line between your (reworked) goals and work plans, think again. We spend too much time focusing on what we will DO rather than what we will ACHIEVE.
Focus on impact, and you are less likely to end up overwhelmed
Taking an impact approach allows you to choose between doing x and doing y, and part of the calculation is working out what actions would move you further, more effectively (and sometimes faster).
3. Recognise your power
In working with leaders, I often have to proactively point out that they have the power to change things
Leaders are decision makers. You can choose to strip out unnecessary work, whether that’s outdated bureaucracy or “front facing” services that no longer serves you or your clients. However, you need to recognise this power in order to be able to act on it.
4. Regularly reflect
We all reflect annually at operational planning times: this is not nearly often enough
Make time to reflect (on your own and with your team) on what to do, dump or delay. The more regularly you do this, the better you will get at it, and the less physical time you will need. Monthly is a minimum, weekly is better.
It sounds like a lot. Trust me, it is not, and it will save you lots of unnecessary, energy draining work.
5. Schedule realistically
When planning the year ahead, remember the 230 rule – for a full time employee, taking account of weekends, average holidays and estimated sick leave, 230 is the number of working days each person has.
Factor in generic meetings (like management team meetings), answering emails, taking part in management tasks (supervision sessions, performance reviews, interviewing for new staff etc), and you could very easily cut the number of days you have to work on actual projects to between 100 and 120, depending on the role.
That’s 840 hours per person at most…in a whole year
Overlay 100-120 days with “double the time you think a project will take” and you get a far more realistic idea of what can be done. And that’s not taking account of things you can’t anticipate.
It takes discipline to apply this to work planning, but this will be a guaranteed way to reduce overwhelm.
6. Renegotiate
When you plan realistically you may realise you cannot meet all the commitments you’ve already made.
Over time you will get better at not over-committing but for now, if you need to, prioritise the stakeholders you know you can’t let down or those whose deadlines are fixed, and renegotiate where you can.
Don’t underestimate who you can negotiate with. For example, funders will want you to do a great job, so will be more open to negotiation than you might think
You may also need to negotiate with yourself.
- Does every email need to be responded to in a day?
- Do I really need to be at that meeting?
- What’s the worst that could happen if I delay “x” by a week?
7. Value differently
How can you find other ways to enable yourself and your colleagues to define their work identity or feel valued?
- How can you celebrate quality over pace?
- How can you reword impact rather than busy-ness?
- How can you show people that what they do matters?
In conclusion
There will always be times when being intensely busy is necessary. It is when freneticism becomes the norm that you need to stop and think.
You have more power over your overwhelm than you know
If you’d like advice on how to reduce overwhelm for you and your teams, reach out at [email protected]. We’re happy to help.