Three Ways to Cope With Work Overload

Or, “How I learned to stop worrying and love the fact that I’m busy.”

Sometimes it’s hard to help your clients keep things together without falling apart yourself. The more value you add, the more in demand you are, and the harder it is to get a handle on a workload that never seems to die down no matter how many lunches you skip, espressos you down, or late night hours you clock. But it’s important not to forget to be a consultant for yourself. Try these strategies to get more done:

1. Get help from above

It’s easy to imagine your boss’ thoughts like this: “Tell me ‘No’ just once, refuse one assignment or admit that you have too much on your plate, and you’ll forever be on my secret ‘Do Not Promote’ list!” Who hasn’t thought like this?

Clearly, a much better way to fall from grace is to miss deadlines and do poor work because you’re swamped. Unless you work for the NSA, odds are your manager only has a rough idea of what you’re up to. They don’t see you at your desk at 10 p.m. with a full inbox and a bin full of 5-Hour Energy. Therefore, don’t be afraid to communicate with your manager and your clients to get input on orchestrating a livable schedule.

That being said, always come to the table with solutions, not problems, and avoid sounding whiny. As Joanna Broussard, president of the BizMark Group consulting firm in Chicago, told the New York Times: “Don’t go in there saying, ‘I have too much work’ because your boss has too much work, too. It’s much more politically astute to offer some solutions and ask for support.”

2. Make your to do list, not vice-versa

Think of your to do list like an anaconda. It’s long, nasty, and if you don’t get a good look at it in time, it will grab you and swallow you whole. Think hard on your workload, make a well-prioritized to do list that separates the snake from the jungle. That is to say, tackle the tasks that are truly important now from the ones you can delay, delegate or deny (i.e., say “no” to).

Once you spot the snakes in the underbrush, don’t just swing wildly with your machete. Avoid the temptation to pay attention to several things at once; a study sited in Time found that only 2.5% of people are true multi-taskers. Trying to focus on everything is a great way to actually accomplish nothing! Pick a focused and achievable list of do-or-die tasks each day (or even each hour if you’re really under the gun) and forget about the rest until the critical ones are done.

There. One snake down. Doesn’t that feel better? Now, bring its skin back to the tribe and they will make you chieftain (not to beat a dead horse, er…snake).

3. Do the hard stuff first

Prioritizing the tough tasks can be one of the toughest tasks itself, especially if your workload has easier, less important chores to distract you from the looming giants on your to-do list. In fact, the mere knowledge that arduous, time-consuming obligations are on the radar can make you procrastinate more, writes Phyllis Korkki for the New York Times: “Companies are asking their workers to be more innovative and creative – and at the same time more efficient. It’s a recipe for paralysis.” Korkki explains that often people get caught up in a chain of emails, status updates, YouTube videos and other deceptively small reactions rather than face a workload with a few highly unpleasant tasks.

So to clear up the workload logjam, try attacking the toughest tasks first, even if it means playing head games with yourself such as imposing your own arbitrary deadlines, breaking down the work into hour or half hour chunks or creating a system of small rewards (“I can only check my email / eat lunch / look at Facebook once I’ve finished this part.”).

Remember, if it were easy, consulting wouldn’t pay very well. And thank goodness you’re busy because it means you’re valuable! Now, go attack some snakes.