Has it ever happened that when the summer holidays have disappeared in a hot ball of sun, you catch yourself saying: ‘It can’t be that close to the next holidays already! I’m still catching up with the ‘beginning of year’ backlog!’
Or perhaps you’re one of the truly organised ones, who never feels behind-hand. If so, this article is not for you. We’re going to talk about strategies to cope with that ugly feeling of overload in your daily work.
Overwhelm Days
At the Bartercard National Leaders’ Conference in early 2003, Martin Russell, Dunedin franchisee had this to contribute. We’d been talking about daily planning and ‘to do’ lists.
“Robyn, you gave us some great advice about writing a list of all the things to do for the day, identifying just the top five, and working on them. The action of writing down definitely takes away some of the stress, but sometimes, especially if there’s pressing deadlines and you can feel a panic attack coming on, the list of ‘absolute must do’s’ seems too long.”
If you also quickly jot down, beside each item, an estimate of how long it will take, it has several benefits:
- Clears the mind clutter.
- Focuses your attention on what’s really important.
- Helps you be more realistic about what you really can do, instead of pushing ahead blindly, maybe on things that you’ve got no chance to achieve.
- Probably the most important – helps you realise that, almost always, the issue is what’s in your head, rather than what’s on the list. Our mind plays funny tricks! It’s amazing how quickly you get through the work once you push the anxiety away, and there’s almost always enough time.
Overwhelm Weeks
Here’s another angle came from Canadian educationalist and speaker Warren Evans.
‘I’ve had a bit of experience with ‘overwhelm’ in the last couple of years. Often I find that sorting/prioritising a day doesn’t do it . . . because I’m looking at a couple of overwhelm weeks!!’
Here’s my process:
- Get a large sheet of paper (at least as big as foolscap) and draw it into days
- Split each day into morning, afternoon, & evening blocks
- Transfer your list of ‘to-do’s onto sticky notes, colour coded for importance & those with hard deadlines
- Also note how long they will take [also Martin’s recommendation]
- Stick the notes onto the big page
Warren went on to say: ‘There’s probably a much fancier electronic way to do this . . . but I’d lose 3 days learning how to use the computer program, and this way I get the exact number of days to cover my time frame – all on one page.’
Advantages:
- I feel good seeing how all this will get done
- I can sort & sequence as I go
- I can fit in, or decline, the stuff that pops up
- I can move the sticky notes around as the week progresses
Extra tip:
Make sure to leave a few blank spots.
Overwhelm of Information
And here’s one more variation from me, especially when there’s a lot of data to capture and manage. It’s more a project management and data capture tool than a prioritising tool. Martin and Warren’s strategies, although they also work for project management, are especially helpful for fitting a particular number of tasks into a defined number of days.
If you’re very visual you’ll want a large space – flipchart pages are best, or a large whiteboard works well, as long as you can leave it there until you’re finished. Or if you’re more minimalist and have small tidy writing, the large piece of paper (or several) mentioned by Warren may do the job.
- On the first page identify the broad categories within the project. (You may choose to use a mind map, or a linear bullet list works well too)
- On subsequent pages, break each category out into key activities
- Expand each item with as many details as possible
- Identify the critical items for fastest results
- With a different coloured pen, give yourself any important target date
- Transfer any time-critical matters into your regular planning tool or diary
Extra tip:
Leave your lists in sight while the work is in progress – on the flipchart stand, the whiteboard, or pinned on the wall.
Even if you’re not actively looking at them every day, your subconscious keeps working. You’ll be delighted how many of the target dates are met, and how effective you feel. And again, as Martin and Warren noticed, it takes away the feeling of overwhelm.
The key to all three strategies is in writing things down – it unclutters the brain.
