Overworked or under-rested?

How do you feel when you’re busy at work? 

A short burst of busyness might be exciting, challenging in a good way. But the novelty wears out pretty fast when you're starting yet another day wondering how you're going to get everything done.

High workload is a commonly cited cause of unhealthy stress and often goes alongside feeling overwhelmed in life more generally. This level of full speed working isn’t sustainable. Over time it will often lead to illness, which, when left unchecked, then becomes burnout (as I know all too well).

According to the NHS, the most common causes of stress at work are:

• A lack of control of our workload
• High demands on our time and energy and lack of clarity about responsibilities
• Fear of redundancy or changes
• Poor line management and lack of support
• Difficult relationships with colleagues
• Bullying or harassment in the workplace
• Workplace discrimination

The speed and ‘always on’ nature of business these days seems to mean the to-do list only gets longer. Some people believe that this fast-paced style of work “is what it is” and that we can’t do anything about it. 

I don’t think that’s true.

The nuclear option is of course to resign and work somewhere better but that’s not to say it’s the easy choice. 

Nor is changing other people’s behaviour such as the workplace bully, the colleague that invades your personal space or the narcissist boss. Plus, there’s no guarantee you won’t run into these same issues elsewhere.

We can, however, make some proactive choices about how we operate and behave.

In this edition, let’s try and help with four of them.

Workload

If we can’t change the workload, perhaps we can change our sense of control over it. By being far more proactive on how we prioritise tasks, what we spend time on, when and for how long, we can put a management plan into place, and better understand our own capacity to take on new things. 

Knowing exactly what’s on your plate can also help you say “no” more firmly when asked to take something new.

Warren Buffet has a simple method to tackle this:

1. Write down your top 25 tasks (Buffet was originally talking about goals, but it works just the same)
2. Choose the five most important
3. The result is two lists. List A (the five) are your priorities. List B are the “to be avoided at all costs” items. You have to get through the items on list A first, before taking on anything from list B. Once you’ve completed list a task on A, you can add a new one from list B.

Or, we can refer back to the Eisenhower matrix that we looked at earlier in the year:

High demands on time

Ever spent an entire afternoon doing a task that should only take an hour? Then you’ve experienced Parkinson’s Law. Without proper boundaries, a task expands to fill the time you’ve allotted to it. 

Get firm with your diary. Accept fewer meetings, make them shorter, time block your tasks and create buffers so you’re not tempted to throw out the plan altogether if you do overrun.

Be purposeful about your intent for the allocated time too. Switch off notifications, manage colleague expectations about responses, close your inbox tab for an hour. Focus on getting the task done, then pick up anything new in your planned breaks.

Poor line management

If you’ve got to the end of a meeting and are still unclear what you need to do, try out reverse delegation. In the absence of clear & specific direction, articulate what you understand and intend to do, by when – then all that’s left for your manager to do is agree or clarify. 

If your manager regularly struggles to delegate effectively, leaving you feeling micromanaged, overworked and without a clear sense of direction, it’s time for you to step up. By ‘managing up’ – understanding what your team is trying to achieve, offering clear communication from your side, anticipating your manager’s needs – you can reduce the clash between you and your lead and try and nurture a healthy professional relationship. 

Examples of this include reaching out when you need help, keeping the team up-to-date with tasks, or scheduling regular catch ups with your manager to ensure you’re not waiting for them. You can’t change them as a person, but you can shape how they interact with you.

Difficult colleague relationships

Such is the nature of the workplace that you won’t get on with everyone. You’ll spend a huge amount of time with these people, but they might very well rub you up the wrong way. So how do you handle that?

Putting aside bullying, harassment and misconduct (if it falls into that camp, your manager and or HR will likely need to be involved), there’s some ways that you can handle team members you find difficult. Be firm with your workload boundaries (“I don’t have capacity to look at this right now, please email me or find time in my diary and we can discuss it then”) but also with attitudes (“I appreciate your perspective, but I don’t feel the same”). Don’t engage with office gossip – if you need to rant, do it to someone outside of the workplace, or you’ll only fuel the fire.

With the end of the year fast approaching, take some time to bring in some of these practices. The Christmas break provides a natural barrier, giving you an opportunity to work out how you’re going to control the controllables in 2025.

Take care,

James

Got feedback about this newsletter, or simply want to share your thoughts? I want to hear it. Let me know by replying to this email.

Ready to change your approach in 2025?

If you’re finishing up another year feeling tired and stressed, I’m here to help. Get in touch, and let’s work out how you can prioritise your mental wellbeing in 2025, making you feel better in yourself and become a better employee, friend and family member.

james@jamespicklescoaching.co.uk

07855 315753

in: James Pickles.