Note: If your job is too draining and exploitative, or you are burnt out with no semblance of work-life balance, talk to a mental health professional, and consider quitting or taking a break. Nothing is worth your health, and mental health comes first.
Many of us are overwhelmed with work, but don’t have the option of quitting. Many of us might even like our jobs, but don’t know how to grapple with new responsibilities, or how to strike a balance when asked to do various different tasks. This can cause one to find work really overwhelming.
If you can relate to this, here are some small, easy hacks to help you work smoothly.
Tips to deal with increasing workload & strike a work-life balance
1. Make to-do lists classified according to priority levels
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When you have too much to do, or too many different kinds of responsibilities to focus on, it can be really tough to keep up. The stress of having so much to do can also make you forgetful.
So, just write everything down, preferably on a phone app which you can edit, view, and access easily.
If you write it down on a piece of paper, it can get lost. If you use a big diary, you can’t carry that everywhere or check it easily. There are lots of apps which can be used as planners or to make lists. Find one for whichever kind of phone you have. It makes life so much easier, even when it comes to tasks outside of work!
2. Set alarms & calendar alerts
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This hack is related to making to-do lists, but is also useful for when you have to keep track of upcoming meetings or events. Most of the time, if you receive a Google calendar invite and own an Android phone which is synced with your Gmail ID, there is automatic integration of the event into your calendar, and you get an alert. But, this doesn’t happen for all phones, and not all events involve a Google calendar invite.
So, just set an alarm or mark the date on your phone calendar yourself. Your phone will give you a reminder and you don’t have to worry about what you think you’re forgetting.
3. Get up & stretch in the middle
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It might sound like silly advice to say that one needs to exercise in the middle of work, but it’s not. When you’re sitting down for hours at a stretch, your mind can just shut off, get bored, or feel tired. Plus, you could feel lethargic.
Get up, walk around, drink some water, do your favourite dance move in the bathroom a few times, and then sit down. The endorphins from exercising are really great mood-boosters, and they help you feel perky when you’ve been doing the same thing for too long. Giving yourself that break can help you actually finish work faster than you would if you just kept trying to work for long stretches.
4. Start small with just one task
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If work is piling up, and there’s just too much to do to the point that you don’t know where to even begin, start small. Do one thing on the list, just one. Pick any random, easy thing, and do it.
Tell yourself, “Okay, before I start watching TV or go on my break, I’ll just wrap up this one thing, or start this one task. I’ll finish it later but I can do a little bit now.” Often, this tricks you into getting into the flow of working, and you actually end up finishing it then itself. It’s because you didn’t put yourself under the pressure of having to finish it then and there, and took it easy.
5. Ask for help or delegate
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No one is going to think you are incompetent for asking for help sometimes. You might think a problem is impossible to solve, or have no idea on how to proceed on something because you’re too involved in it, or have over-thought it.
Take it to someone who understands your work and has an idea about these things – your boss, a colleague, even someone junior to you. Their view might help you find solutions you didn’t see, because an outsider’s perspective can be fresh.
If you have just been promoted to being a manager, you might not know how to adjust to the new order. Learn to delegate instead of trying to micromanage things.
This doesn’t mean you are asking them to do the work for you. It just means you are asking them for help on how you can do your work more efficiently.
6. Do the optimum amount, not maximum amount
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Every task does not require military-grade precision and industrial-strength efficiency. Do as much as you need to, and don’t over-exert trying to excel at unimportant tasks.
The rangoli you make for the Diwali competition HR is holding does not have to be the best in the world. The colours in a PPT are not as important as the content. Pick your battles and know where to put in effort, and where to take it easy.
7. Spend time doing nothing, or things which aren’t work
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On the occasions when you don’t have to work, like weekends, switch your WhatsApp “Last seen at” visibility to ‘Nobody,’ and log out of your work email on your phone.
Then, sit and watch TV, read, paint, dance, cook, go out for dinner, or just literally do anything that isn’t related to your work. It’s really important to get a break from work if you want to come back to it feeling rejuvenated and energised.
8. Talk to someone if you’re still overwhelmed
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Most people burn out because they don’t get time to recharge, often for no fault of their own. You cannot recharge if work is all you do all day and your workload is crazy.
If all the solutions listed above don’t help, take your problems to your manager and see if they can help reduce your workload. If people in your office don’t cooperate, consider looking for a different job.
While you do that, if you feel your workplace is toxic and the job is unmanageable no matter what you try, speak to someone, preferably a mental health professional, instead of keeping it to yourself. Don’t suffer in silence because the problem will not go away if ignored.
Let us know if you have any work hacks that can help make office life less stressful!
Lead image credit: Window Seat Films, Reliance Entertainment, Pen India Limited, Carnival Motion Pictures, iStock Photo
