When I felt overwhelmed in my work, it was because I had too much to do at once.
I had too many windows open on my mental desktop. I had expectations to get x, y, and z done, which was already a lot, and then something else unexpected came up that I had to deal with. I was working hard, but could not get it all done.
Sometimes it was my high expectations and manufactured deadlines that were stressing me out.
What I learned is that I need to lower my expectations. Get real. Then look at all the things I had to do. Decide which one was most important.
Delegate any of them to someone else if I could. Decide if any of them just did not have to be done right now. Then pick ONE thing.
I could work on ONE thing at a time and not lose my mind. Put all the rest off and decide to be ok with it if they do not get done.
Do one thing at a time. When it’s time to go home, go.
What gets you overwhelmed is not how much stuff you have to do, it’s how you process it. And that you can change.
Another timely post! Thank you- great advice!
I completely agree! We can only do what we can do. I believe it’s much better to do the high value things well rather than to hit and miss on multiple different things at once and not do any of them well. As the old saying goes, “If you barely have time to do it the first time you certainly don’t have time to do it again.” We should do the things only we can do and that we have to do and do them well and then move to the next thing. Continual, steady, forward progress should be the goal.