Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Last week, I shared the results of a survey that pointed to work overload as "enemy number one."  Today, let's work the problem from a personal point of view. While many of us can't control our workplace - we can control how we use our time. Here are some possible solutions that can chip away at the work overload beast. 

1.  Find some more time. Yeah, Demangone, thanks for that. Sure, I'll just reach for my Batman utility belt and flip the switch for "add 2 more hours in the day." (Just stay with me a bit...)

• Re-organize your time into useful blocks. (Refresher.com) True productivity arises when you create blocks of un-interrupted time to tackle projects.  Starting and stopping, only to start and stop again is very inefficient. 
• Take an hour-long, re-occurring meeting, and shave it down to 45 minutes. Or 30. (Or cancel it, according to Jason Fried!) If your meeting is just as effective, you just saved a few minutes. 
• Use email "rules" to automate things. Scott Hanselman uses rules to divide his mail into 4 categories. This allows him to focus on other things. There are many other ways to use rules to help manage email. Nearly all of them free up time. 
• Every once in a while, getting into the office wicked early can make a huge difference. 

2. Get more efficient with your time. 

• Do one thing at a time. Stop multi-tasking. This is much harder that it sounds. I use Focus Booster to help me.  It is a simple timer that gives you 25 minutes to work on one thing, with a 5 minute cool-down period that follows. Working in 25-minute bursts is not easy, but if you stay at it, you will see productivity jump. Keep in mind, it isn't easy. If you are reading a proposal, you do just that. You hit the timer and start reading. You don't stop until you the timer goes off, or until you finish the proposal. If you need more time, go through another cycle. You do not read email. Check Twitter. Facebook. Voicemails. Get coffee. Check stocks. The weather. You do not pass "Go." You do not collect $200. While multi-tasking seems very productive, it isn't. Science says so.  (Health.com) Science!  (Musical interlude.)
• Write better emails. Hold better meetings. Bad meetings and emails are like cockroaches. If you don't kill them, they multiply.
• Read each email once, and then act. Glancing at an email, only to glance at it again, and then glance at it again...you get my point.  I tend to get more done when I turn off my email notification and address emails periodically. 

3. Take something off your plate. 

• Before you point at others, look at yourself. I bet there are many things you do multiple times a day that you only need to do once, if at all. Checking stocks. Looking at the local/regional/national news. The weather. Social media. There may be a dashboard that reports on credit union goals. The question you must ask yourself is this: Do I need to look at this, or is it some sort of sick, subliminal way that I'm hi-jacking my own day by creating a constant interruptions?  Try this instead. Schedule a 15 minute "curiosity" meeting once a day to look at these things. When the time is up, get back to work. Remember, every minute counts. 
• We're not done with you yet. Are there things you could rearrange in your daily schedule or life? If you can't find time for the gym, or you don' t have time for other important things, but you did watch ALL the Breaking Bad episodes in the past 45 days... 
• Some meetings are mandatory. Others are not. Learn the difference. If you aren't clear on the difference, try this: Tina, do you have to have me there? Often, Tina will say...no, but I thought I should invite you. I didn't want to leave you out of the meeting and possibly ruffle your feathers. 

4. Never underestimate the power of life's springboards - getting enough sleep, eating right and getting exercise. Everything else works better when you do those three things. 

5. Act like you're going on vacation tomorrow. There is no animal on earth so powerful, so fast, as an American worker the day before a vacation. Reports are finished. Old issues are settled. Questions are answered. It is the ultimate example of ruthless prioritization and efficiency. 

All of these ideas address workload from a personal level.  If there are institutional issues going on, these ideas will only be so useful.  But they are a start. 

Does anyone have any other tips to battle back against work overload?