Pat’s Blog: Effective strategies to cope with an overwhelming workload

I was a workaholic. I worked approximately 70 hours a week, leaving little time to spend with my family, see my friends or pursue any of my interests.

Why did I do it? I guess for many of the same reasons as anyone reading this article.

I was brought up in a working class family, where education and achievement were hugely important. I was usually second or third in my primary school class but my father's response was always, "why were you not first?" I never felt good enough.

I did reasonably well academically and eventually achieved my goal of becoming a senior manager in an organisation I felt proud to work for. However my feelings of inadequacy never quite left me and I felt that I had to work harder and better than anyone else. I was always that enthusiastic person agreeing to take on additional work, getting involved in new projects, attending lots of meetings, wanting to be in control and therefore finding it difficult to delegate. It was hardly surprising that there were times went I felt overwhelmed.

I worked in the public sector where the only constant was change. I can hardly remember a year where there was not a re-structure, new ways of working, new policies and procedures to be followed – and then came the cuts. Fewer people to provide the ever-improving services we were striving to achieve.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I was fortunate. In my continuing battle to improve myself, I attended a leadership course and as part of this was allocated a coach who helped me recognise that I could achieve the results I wanted without working ridiculous hours, and helped me, at a crucial time in my life, to free up time to spend with my family.

Years later I can look back on this coaching as a turning point in my life. I am sure the coaching I received was instrumental in my decision to later re-train and become a coach myself.

So what strategies did I use following my coaching to help me manage my workload more effectively and have since used to help clients who are in a similar position?

Pareto’s Principle – The 80/20 rule

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that 20% of the people owned 80% of the wealth. This later became known as Pareto's Principle, that 20 % of something is responsible for 80 % of results. You can apply this rule to almost anything. In the workplace, identify and focus on the 20% of things that really matter. Make a list of them. Those 20 % produce 80 % of your results. If something has to slip, make sure it is not part of the 20%.

Learn to delegate

How can you develop staff and let them grow if you do not give them responsibility. You have to let them make mistakes, otherwise how will they learn. You never know you may be pleasantly surprised. I know I was!

Learn to say no

Do you really need to go to that meeting? Can you send someone else? Be more in control and don't always allow others to make demands on your time.

Be organised

How much time have you spent searching for a document either on your desk, office or computer? Have you missed an important meeting because you have not put the date in your calendar? Spend some time organising these files and tidying your office. Keep your calendar up to date. You will be surprised at how much time you will save and how less overwhelmed you will feel working in a tidy, organised office.

Keep a ‘to do’ list

List tasks according to importance or urgency to plan your day and focus your mind. Remember the 20/80 rule!

Be realistic about deadlines

Look at your ‘to do’ list, estimate how much time each task will take to complete and be honest about what you are able to achieve in a given day/ week.

Don't be a slave to email

Do you have your email switched on beside you and look at it every time you hear it arrive? Don't! Switch of the alert and check it two or three times per day.

Ask for help when you need it

Don't allow things to get out of control. Most managers would rather know there was a problem sooner rather than later when it may be easier to resolve. Make a clear list of the issues, possible suggestions and be prepared to work together on a solution.

Try to limit multi-tasking

As a woman I struggled with this. However by not giving each task undivided attention, mistakes are more likely to happen and tasks not get completed.