That’s how much of my day belonged to me yesterday. I spent one of them at the gym first thing in the morning, and in the other two I stopped for gas, ate dinner, did Facebook and some personal emails, put out the garbage and took a hot tub soak. And then I was worthless for more than a few minutes of TV and bed. I could make a long list of the things around home I would have liked to tend to, but suffice it to say, work is eating my lunch these days. There are signs every day that 12-hour workdays are unsustainable. There are moments where words elude me and I just don’t feel sharp. But today put me over the edge…I totally forgot that I had scheduled the delivery of my new dishwasher. The delivery man reached me at work, and he was standing in my driveway, some 40 miles of traffic away. I was ticked off and mad at my boss for that. Life is not in balance. I have been without a dishwasher for four weeks. It’s taken that long to do my research, buy one and get delivery on the calendar. If I weren’t so stressed out and over-extended by work, I’d have a dishwasher tonight…of that I’m sure.
There are times when every professional has to put in the extra hours and help to get things done. But this is just about every day now. It’s not only me either. My admin today missed a very important assignment from her boss – getting a travel Visa in time for her boss’ trip. No Visa, no trip. My admin is another person who never misses anything. And yet, this was a biggie. Oh, sure, there are lots of reasons that don’t really matter to the story, but the point is, she’s super-stressed out too and nobody performs well at this pace…sooner or later something breaks. The Visa broke.
So how do you maintain balance or get it back when you simply can’t get all your work done? For starters, stop trying to get it all done. Get enough sleep. Don’t stop going to the gym. And just do your best in the fair amount of time you choose to give to work. The first two things will keep your energy up and your brain working. And chances are, they can’t find someone who can accomplish what you do – so relax and just chip away at it. Ruthlessly prioritize. Ignore low value things. Delegate if you can. Sacrifice quality for volume. Does that advice shock you? “No, I couldn’t possibly let poor quality go”? It’s not easy when you know you’d do better with more time, but unless you’re operating a nuclear power plant, it’s probably still going to be OK to back off until things lighten up.
Yes, I could be working instead of blogging, but a) blogging is more fun and b) I can’t possibly catch up on work anyway. So I restore my energy with Fun Stuff instead.
There are times when every professional has to put in the extra hours and help to get things done. But this is just about every day now. It’s not only me either. My admin today missed a very important assignment from her boss – getting a travel Visa in time for her boss’ trip. No Visa, no trip. My admin is another person who never misses anything. And yet, this was a biggie. Oh, sure, there are lots of reasons that don’t really matter to the story, but the point is, she’s super-stressed out too and nobody performs well at this pace…sooner or later something breaks. The Visa broke.
So how do you maintain balance or get it back when you simply can’t get all your work done? For starters, stop trying to get it all done. Get enough sleep. Don’t stop going to the gym. And just do your best in the fair amount of time you choose to give to work. The first two things will keep your energy up and your brain working. And chances are, they can’t find someone who can accomplish what you do – so relax and just chip away at it. Ruthlessly prioritize. Ignore low value things. Delegate if you can. Sacrifice quality for volume. Does that advice shock you? “No, I couldn’t possibly let poor quality go”? It’s not easy when you know you’d do better with more time, but unless you’re operating a nuclear power plant, it’s probably still going to be OK to back off until things lighten up.
Yes, I could be working instead of blogging, but a) blogging is more fun and b) I can’t possibly catch up on work anyway. So I restore my energy with Fun Stuff instead.