You can avoid being overworked
In order to avoid becoming overworked it’s not a matter of working harder but simply one of working smarter. By using a few simple concepts and tools you can easily avoid becoming overworked, even if you have a lot on your plate.
Organization is the key to your success. It doesn’t take very long to make a plan. Schedule your tasks in a day planner, calendar or whatever works for you. Organize tasks based on when they must be done, and break larger projects up into smaller chunks. It doesn’t matter a great deal how you plan, it’s having the plan that makes it helpful. But far, far more important than just having a plan is actually sticking to it. Take 1% of your time to make a plan, and take the other 99% of your time actually following it.
This goes hand in hand with planning, but discipline means more than just sticking to your schedule. Self-discipline is the power to stick at a task, even if you don’t enjoy it very much, until it is complete. It’s what makes you go back and proofread your work one more time. It’s what makes you stay an hour late on Friday to finish a job rather than coming in an hour early on Monday. Discipline is the nagging little voice inside your head that says “I know this piece of work is technically okay, but you really should do it better.” Discipline is doing things the right way the first time around, thus reducing your workload and those of anyone else who might have to redo your work for you.
Many people are overworked simply because they sit there and take everything that their boss dishes out as if they don’t have any say in the matter. In fact it’s very rare that management will “force” you to do a job, threatening you with dismissal if you don’t take on yet another additional chore. The truth is you are a valuable member of the team and it would be a lot more trouble to replace you than it would be to find someone else willing to take on this extra task. Don’t be afraid to say that you’ve got as much on your plate right now as you can handle. Management can always insist on giving you the work, but if they have a hard time believing that you’re overworked it could be because your definition of what “overworked” actually means needs some adjustment.
Most of the complaints about unrealistic workloads come from younger or inexperienced workers. The veterans who have been around for a while are used to the work, have mastered the skills they need, and are confident they can deliver. Or it could simply be that a 40 year old father with two kids who need braces will have a much greater tolerance for the daily demands of the job than a 21 year old with a hangover from a weekend of partying. With time, age and experience chances are good that you’ll feel overworked less and less often, thus avoiding the need to avoid becoming overworked in the first place.
