When Work Gets Crazy: How to Prioritize

What To Do When Your Job is Taking Over Your Life: 3 Part Series

When work gets super crazy that it’s bleeding into your personal life or taking over your personal life, it can wreak havoc on your your performance at work and your personal life. I was going to create one video to discuss 3 quick tips but as I was writing, I felt like none of these tips are quick and each deserves some quality time so I can offer ideas and resources that really apply.

The ramifications of sustained high stress, high pressure lifestyles can have sneaky effects that aren’t always obvious until you are suddenly faced with a serious issue, be it your physical or mental health or your personal and professional relationships. It’s super important to recognize these conditions before things start breaking down.

So what do we do….sometimes when things are super crazy, we need to mobilize our resources and go into triage mode. Starting with number 1…Prioritization:

How do we really prioritize? It’s such an overused word. To me, prioritization is really about 2 things. Committing to your priorities and managing the interruptions or “unknowns”. This is obviously the challenge. I can write a to-do list and rank it in order of importance but if I’m not committed to that list, then I’m easily distracted by any possibilities. It’s too easy to answer that e-mail really quick. It’s tempting to do the easy little things to get them out of the way so you can cross just things off your list.

One of my favorite podcasts, Hidden Brain, Episode Deep Work 2.0...please listen. https://www.npr.org/2017/07/25/539092...
The guest addresses the impact of distractions, even seemingly small innocuous distractions. And consequently, the important things you need to accomplish that require your undivided attention and thought get pushed to the wayside. Unless you’re the social media director at your job, turn off your notifications on your phone.

Headspace.com app actually has a 10 day pack devoted to prioritization. Speaking of which, for me, meditating for 10-20 minutes a day is important but not necessarily urgent. For me it’s become such a valuable resource that it is almost urgent that I do it everyday. Speaking of important versus urgent...

Read or listen to Stephen Covey’s legendary book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” He spells out very clear means for prioritizing with a matrix (developed by Dwight D. Eisenhower) dividing tasks into important and/or urgent. In my mind, the biggest obstacle are the stupid little interruptions that are urgent but NOT important. To minimize the urgent but not important, you may have to shut your door and turn off your phone, turn off your e-mail. Sometimes I have to force myself to do that and I actually feel anxious about that. What if something happens? Then I remind myself that not that long ago, most of us conducted business without cell phones, e-mails or text messaging. If you get interrupted by someone, ask them their time frame. You might find their request isn’t really urgent at all.

Finally, communicate. I have found that when I’m overwhelmed, if I share some of my priorities with my coworkers, employees and family, many people, most people are very accommodating and very well may jump in to help. If I say, hey, I’ve got this that and the other thing to do by the end of the day so if I seem distracted bear with me, this almost always works for me. If the other person can’t help, at least they know to leave me alone.