Did you recently have moments when you thought that work overload would kill you? Have you worked with an agenda that looks like it will never end? How did you handle it?
A coach asked these questions in 2018 when I got to a course on reorganizing my life and work to be more productive. Half of the people in the room looked as if they hadn’t slept for a week, exhausted, stressed, and making lapsus when speaking. Their words came from their mouth without even thinking about what they were saying. While looking more balanced and relaxed, I got the trainer’s attention. She gave my behavior as an example to the others. The training was completed in two days. On the second today, one of the participants came to me and asked, “Why did you sign up for this course? Is it obvious that you will not get anything good from it? So, you don’t need it.” I politely explained that no matter how it looks, I have a habit of adding to my agenda courses for basic skills to update myself. Then we started chatting and, at the end of the class, even changed business cards. From her business card, I understood that the person is the CEO of a start-up company in the fintech industry.
Several weeks later, I met the same person during an evening event at one of the Trade Chambers I was a member of. They looked even more exhausted and down than during the course. After recognizing me, the person came close, greeted and asked how I was feeling after the class and if anything showed there had helped me. Even before starting to answer, the person started talking about how overwhelmed with work they were and how exhausted they felt at the burnout edge.
I asked him if he still had my business card and if he could call me the next day to meet and exchange experiences on how our lives have changed after the course.
The next day I was traveling for work, and at 07:45, my phone rang in the car. It was this same person. He asked if we could see each other the same day, and we scheduled a meeting for lunch near his office.
During lunch, I heard the same excuses I have heard from several of my colleagues when feeling exhausted and ready to quit at the end of their powers. After the blaming part for their condition, the person asked me how I could balance in a twice wider environment and not burn out. My answer was simple, and I learned this from a very gifted Dale Carnegie trainer and coach many years ago –start delegating. On this one, the reaction was expected: no one can do his job.
While been in a similar situation several times, I asked the following question: “What is it in your day that only you can do and no one else?” This was a tuff question, and the person started thinking. Finally, after more than a minute of silence, he started talking about different things they were doing and how they could have been transferred to others on the team.
This is the question I always ask everyone who comes to me to state that people have issues delegating to others.
So, “How can you recognize that you are having issues delegating?”. Here are four signs of that:
You do not have time for your agenda
While trying to be everywhere and do everything, the time in your agenda flies fast, to brings you to the end of the day, where you still have another “small” list of more than five tasks to finish. Lack of time is also easily seen in things others do, and you need more time. The most accessible signs are a lack of time for lunch and a small coffee break to socialize. You can look at the time windows between meetings and tasks to add more to the list.
Do you feel like you are running from one meeting to another without having time to switch to the other topic? Or you may see that getting into an appointment requires the first couple of minutes to understand the meeting and the issues’ details.
This comes from the need for more time to relax and switch on/off from one engagement to another.
Organized, but still living the office last or late
No matter how organized and good your to-do list app is, you always need help finishing all your tasks. It is the end of the day, and people are preparing to leave, but your list still has some urgent tasks for the same day. In most cases, this is not procrastination but the gap in the knowledge of how to prioritize your homework for a more significant impact. When this happens, you start finishing studies in the flow they have been added to your to-do list, without thinking too much and just doing them.
Everyone turns to you for everything, and you are involved, if not responsible, for many things.
The “Only I can do it excellently” approach is often seen today. People usually start with the intention of giving an example of how things should be done. Still, this example turns into an unstopping circle of responsibilities on someone else’s agenda. And that creates a false opportunity for growth for yourself. Why inaccurate, you may ask. Well, the answer is simple. While trying to do all the work, we use our current knowledge and develop skills. Still, we do that mechanically and without getting into the small details, such if the knowledge and skills we have or are building right now will be helpful in different situations. That often makes us repeat the learning or remembering process next time and lose precious time for ourselves.
More than thirty percent of things you do are outside your direct responsibilities.
There is nothing wrong with completing someone else tasks and fighting someone else fights from time to time. This makes you stronger and more knowledgeable and builds skills that can be transferred into different areas and situations. But most people forget there must be a limit and take the following responsibility in someone else’s favor or, in some cases, positive development. And one day, you wake up to understand that your main list of duties has dramatically changed and grown with unusual and not typical for your role responsibilities.
You are constantly exhausted.
Trying to solve everyone’s problems and not letting some of the things go anywhere else is draining your energy from day to day. In the beginning, you may be able to balance somehow. Then, things move in a direction where you start doing something you like or are on your agenda rarely, to finish focusing on an overwhelming list of responsibilities and tasks that has changed your way of living. Ask yourself: “Is that necessary?” and “Why this drains my powers so much?”
And now, after reading the text above, you may ask yourself what you can do to change that and achieve more with less. As the saying goes: “Work smart, not hard.”
To make the change happen and ensure that it will be sustainable in time, you may need to transform your habits, conformity zone, and way of behaving and working. If you are up to this point, the change is knocking on your door. You need to open the door and let it in.
Let me give you some steps to do it quickly and with less stress.
Threat 1: You don’t have for your agenda
Solution: Change your agenda
This may sound so easy and obvious, but some forty-seven percent of people, according to HBR research from 2022, are stuck here. Changing your agenda is only possible if you first build critical thinking about the content added to it. Your schedule is probably full because it contains items that are someone else priority or just not a real push at this particular moment in time. Critically going through the agenda can recreate it and move the pressure from the current moment into a future balanced path. And this will lead to freeing enough time for what is more important now.
Threat 2: You are organized, but you leave the office last or late
Solution: Change your limits
We often invest increased time because we see our current work as more important than all the items on the agenda we have created. Focusing on work and neglecting family, friends, social events, and even yourself is more like a virus that you have to fight against. The first and most critical step is to set new limits. If you need to do something and see that the time limit is near and you have to go for dinner with your family, ask yourself, “Is that more important than my family?” And if you answer YES, and you are not someone whose work saves lives directly, then ask yourself again. Breaking the chains of the feeling that the world depends on you is an eye-opening action and prerequisite for the upcoming shift in your beliefs, attitudes, and way of thinking and acting.
Threat 3: Everyone turns to you for everything, and you are involved, if not responsible, for many things
Solution: Analyze your list of contacts and interactions for the day and ask yourself:
Am I needed everywhere?
Who can replace me in some situations and with some decisions?
What are the decisions and situations that do not need my attention?
What will it cost me to let these situations and decisions go to someone else?
And most important:
How can I stop the temptation to take back what I have already given?
Ask yourself these questions daily for every situation or decision you may need to deliver. Stop people from going to you about everything, and most important, and I know it may feel uncomfortable, turn people back to the door if you see that they still come to you for things you have already redirected to someone else. This may make you feel weak and guilty initially, but in time you will see the benefits of demonstrating that strength toward others’ attempts to distract you and still your time.
Threat 4: More than thirty percent of things you do are not in your direct responsibilities
Solution: Clear your list of responsibilities
This may not look good at first, but remember when the company experienced some downturns and you voluntarily offered (or, as leaders say, proactively) your help through knowledge, skills, energy, and passion. The situation may have changed drastically, but these responsibilities are still attached to you. And now, count how many of these responsibilities you have added to your official and unofficial job description. Depending on the small things, your list of duties includes those essential for different roles and departments in the company. Why am I sure about that – I make the same mistake and then regret it. All the people around me make the same mistake and then regret it. Some sixty-one percent of the respondents in research sponsored by KPMG Europe have declared the same issues. You are lucky if you are not on this list, but many people still need that exercise.
Threat 5: You are constantly exhausted
Solution: Follow the steps above and recreate your agenda. This will allow you to move from the thinking of the non-replaceable person to the one who is happily delegating part of their work to free time for themselves and let others shine by delivering results in comfortable areas. Taking the exhaustion to lower levels is a positive sign that you are moving in the right direction – throwing burthen from yourself and balancing your life while uplifting others. This is the real sign that your delegation efforts are successful.
IN CONCLUSION:
There is no panacea for effectively dealing with overload and exhaustion. However, delegation, as a tool, can save time, effort, and negative experiences and simultaneously open doors for self-improvement and the improvement of others. Used wisely, this tool can turn behaviors, change attitudes and simultaneously deliver excellent results while retaining people in the company.
The Human place - a path from you to yourself 