This is why you are out of control and overworked

"Achieve more by doing less" - Tao Te Ching (Chinese proverb)

It is now Thursday evening, and I have accomplished none of the activities that I had set out for myself on Monday morning. I thought I had already mastered my to-do list, focusing on tasks that achieve an outcome rather than just doing a task for the sake of completion. And, as per my previous blog, I was also focused on which high performers I wanted to get exposed to more and prioritise meetings with them.

But fate has a funny way of always challenging you just as you are starting on your journey. My usual routine is this. Each month, I set out a list of outcomes I wanted to achieve by the end of the month, and each Monday morning, I set out the list of tasks for the week that would progress the outcomes I had listed. Now, being realistic, I don't set out an incredible amount of outcomes to be achieved. After all, the nature of my role means that there are always unexpected activities that warrant my immediate attention (people issues for example are especially time consuming and tricky). So generally, I set enough work related but personal outcomes to occupy 20% of my capacity and the rest is set up for known work deliverables. In estimating the amount of time I have available, I use a simple formula for each work day: 10 hours a day for work (yes I'm paid for only 7.5 but the reality is, you need to put in some hard yards to get ahead), 1 hour for working on myCorporateDiary, and 1 hour for entertainment, family, etc. The rest of the hours are used for sleeping, commuting (I listen to podcasts on the bus so I can share my insights with you), and meals. If you think about it, from Monday to Friday, there really isn't much time left for anything else. 

And this week, the volume of work has just blown me off my feet. My 80% was already heavily earmarked for the Board meeting coming up next week. My CEO is in-focus so I was busy preparing her for all possible eventualities and appropriate responses. This week also marks the finalisation of performance reviews for the last financial year (June to June) so I was busy preparing for results discussions. Then out of the blue, I had an unexpected people issue with a non-performing team member, who not only didn't recognise he was not performing (despite already numerous conversations) but blamed the lack of results and some of his behaviours on the position of the moon and vitamin deficiencies. I'm not joking. Then there are the stealth projects that my own boss is heavily leading, which had a tight timeline. Without much warning, he would spring thought provoking and often deeply philosophical questions at me to get my thoughts. I loved these debates but this week, I just didn't have time to engage in them. Then there are the multitude of random requests and queries from my customers, peers, and team members. This afternoon was the epitome of the volume of work. I had just come out of a meeting with the CEO and was busy preparing documentation she asked to have ready immediately after the meeting. I logged back into my computer and almost immediately, I had four Skype for business instant messages from four different people (one after the other) just flashing away in orange demanding my attention, the phone rang - and when I didn't pick up my desk phone, this person rang my mobile, two emails came in marked urgent (the Corporate Secretary wanted to confirm who would be attending the Board meeting), and a team member dropped by to update me on a small project we had been working on.

Being the people pleaser that I am, I tried to multi-task and immediately reply to as many of the request as possible. But it's never that easy is it. The Skype for Business messages just keep going. It's like a virtual conversation and the constant orange flashing in the task bar just demands an immediate response. The phone call is from someone who has always had trouble getting to the point. But I have trouble telling them to just get to the point without sounding rude. The emails had that little red exclamation mark next to them, which just screams the need for attention. And the team member just goes on and on and asks me to make a decision then and there.

Of course, it doesn't take a genius to work out what was going to happen. I cleared all of those demands in 20 minutes. But no sooner had I paused for breath, I received an email from the CEO asking "What on Earth had I decided to send her? The documents didn't match what we had discussed". Of course it didn't, I had attached the wrong file and did not put a lot of effort into the email to give her a good enough summary as my brain was consumed with multi-tasking. Two of the four Skype for Business messages came back, as I had not given enough thought to their queries and now they needed further clarification. The person on the phone probably now thinks I'm a prick as I told her to "think about what you want to say before you call me as I don't have time right now" and the team member who wanted me to make a decision on the direction of a project is now set off on a path to nowhere. Don't even get me started on the emails with exclamation marks.

Sensing I was about to explode mentally (or say out loud something very rude in front of everyone), I took my laptop, went to a meeting room, closed the door and started sequencing what I needed to do to address each query properly, once and for all. A team member saw me, knocked on the door for a quick query, and I told him to book a time for tomorrow. Over the next two hours, I worked on addressing each and every query through thinking exactly what they were after then providing a considered response. First to address the CEO's request (and apologise profusely for the error). It's an amazing irony that when you have very little room to say something, it narrows the focus into what's truly important and how it can be best articulated. You start eliminating a lot of unnecessary words and sentences. For example, I used to say "Can you provide guidance on xxxx topic, otherwise, direct me to the best person who can." The words after "otherwise" are completely unnecessary. Most people would do that if they could. And if they didn't know who, they weren't going to respond to you anyway. By the time everything was finished, all the people who were looking for answers from me had gone home. It was dark outside the office and it was time for me to go home.

I am drained. But what had I accomplished by trying to please everyone? I've managed to annoy the CEO because I was careless with my email and now she potentially perceives that I don't get how valuable her time is. I've managed to insult someone on the phone, I have peers who are wondering whether my reputation as a considered and thoughtful person is justified, and I have a team member who is probably going to curse me for sending him down a rabbit warren. So by trying to appease everyone, I've managed to tick all of them off. And to top it all off, not a single item on my to do list could be ticked off.

In fact, it is now the middle of July and there is not a single item in the "Complete" section of my Trello board but an alarmingly large number of tasks still in progress.

It's a long long list of tasks sitting in "In Progress" and I'm already half way through the month.

So what is the lesson learnt and what actions will I take here. It does back to the quote at the beginning. To achieve more, you have to do less. We must have a clear set of priorities in our heads so that when a large volume of work comes along, we can easily distinguish between what must be tackled straight away, versus what can be tackled later. You will be surprised at how understanding most people are when you say, hey, I'm all booked up, can I get back to you later. How do I know this is a good approach, because this is exactly the phrase most high performers say to me. And they almost always get back to me. The office jerks tend to just ignore your request when they're too busy. 

The ideal way to tackle what happened to me this afternoon, would've been to focus on completing what I had discussed with the CEO first. That task had a time limit, and certainly should be completed while the contents of the discussion were still fresh in my mind. Then addressed the emails with the exclamation marks. I would've asked my team member to come back later, and importantly, I would've ignored the phone calls and instant messages. After all, if it was that important, they'd call back. In fact, I'm going change the settings in Skype so that they stop flashing and demanding attention. 

There is only so much time available in any given day and you only have a finite amount of time on this planet. So make sure you are clear on what your priorities are and ensure the tasks you work on are aligned with those priorities. That's why, even though it's almost past midnight on Thursday, it's around 10 degrees outside, I am writing this blog rather than sleeping snugly in bed.

Blog Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash