Taking on an extra workload in my day job this year means that I have to be vigilant about planning my tasks and prioritising. I have been investigating different ways to manage the workload so I don’t get overwhelmed and end up achieving nothing.
Some of the processes I have put in place include setting my to do list for the next work day before I walk out the door the day before. If this is not possible I definitely do it before I begin my work tasks for the day. I have also turned off the email alert on my computer so I am not distracted by the sound of an email arriving while I am busy working on another task. The distraction is enough to pull me away from my task, break my rhythm and cause me to take so much longer to get something done. Now I have to physically choose to check my email so I can do it when I am ready.
Sometimes I close my office door just so I can get an important project completed without distraction but I have to admit that this is very rare and I only do it when I am desperate.
I have been doing a lot of reading on this issue and one of the recurring themes is delegation.
This is something I have always struggled with and I’m still finding difficult. I struggle to delegate tasks to others for a couple of reasons-
a) Their timeline for completion is usually different to mine
b) I feel bad giving extra work to others who are also very busy
c) I think that by the time I have told someone else how I want it completed, I could have done it myself
This is still a work in progress for me as there are definitely tasks I take on which can easily be completed by someone else. I am contemplating making a list of the most common time consuming tasks which really don’t need to be done by me so that I can at least identify them. The long term goal being to remove them from my to do list permanently. I suppose only time will tell.