How to Reduce Workload and Avoid Stress at Work

Imagine it’s Friday night and everyone but you has gone home. Despite your exhaustion, you keep telling yourself: “30 minutes left”. Suddenly two more hours have passed and you’ve put in a 10-hour day. What a way to start the weekend, right?

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There’s a good chance you’ve experienced work overload if it sounds even remotely familiar. And with the American Institute of Stress estimating that 80% of workers struggle with work-related stress, you’re not alone. In addition, almost half of them say they need support to cope with this stress. So if you’re among the nearly 50% who need a little help – here are some productivity hacks you can try.

So let’s learn how to prevent overwork and stress from affecting your productivity.

1. It’s okay to admit that you can’t do everything.

Some of us tend to overestimate our abilities. The more responsibility we take on, the more stress we create at work, which negatively impacts our performance.

As such, you have to admit that you can’t do it all on your own. Even Superman relies on the Justice League to help him deal with threats too great for humanity to handle alone. Using this as a starting point, you should look for better solutions if you want to make serious progress.

Life is full of times when things don’t go as planned. In both your professional and personal life, you have to be honest with yourself, which doesn’t work.

Your progress will accelerate as you practice telling the truth about what works and what doesn’t.

2. Write six to-do lists (but not all at once).

Make a weekly to-do list on Sunday evening—or the day before the week begins. Make sure you have a weekly calendar set up so you can see not just today’s tasks, but your entire week’s tasks as well. That way you can move things around as needed. It will also be easier to see where to steal time if needed.

The next step is to create a to-do list for the next day. Assuming you work Monday through Friday, do this every day Sunday through Thursday.

In short, organize your daily and weekly to-do lists every night. By doing this, you can answer the following questions:

• Are you on your way to completing your tasks?
• Is there something that needs to be changed?

Additionally, if it’s a bright day, you can cross something off tomorrow’s list and work on it tomorrow.

3. Set up alarms and calendar notifications.

Aside from using this hack to create to-do lists, you can also use it to keep track of upcoming meetings and events.

Let’s say you get an invitation to a Google Calendar event and you’ve synced an Android phone with your Gmail ID. You will receive a notification as the event is automatically integrated into your calendar.

However, some phones don’t do this, and not all appointments require a Google Calendar invite. Instead, you can just set the alarm or mark the date yourself on your phone calendar. If you think you’ve forgotten something, your phone will remind you.

4. Clearly define your boundaries.

Working from home during the pandemic has allowed some employees to have more personal time. As a result, the lines between work and home also blurred. It suddenly became clear how important it is to maintain a balance between work and personal life.

Workplace integration can make switching off and detaching difficult. For example, there is no commute, so workdays can be extended and meetings and work requests can take place outside of regular working hours. As a result, we can easily fall back into old habits like long work days, hectic commutes, and excessive commitments upon returning to the office.

If you can set work limits, make sure you do and follow them. Some suggestions include the following:

• Share your calendar with others so they can see your working hours.
• Avoid working outside of your scheduled hours or attending meetings as much as possible.
• Make your teammates aware of the importance of respecting your working hours as well.
• Write a time for lunch on your calendar each day.
• Set a time for colleagues to reach you each day and try to stick to it.

Breaks are also important throughout the day. Create morning and afternoon quiet times so you can check in with yourself, move your body, and unwind.

5. Add “no” to your vocabulary.

There is a natural tendency for most of us to say yes to more work. But if you say no, you put yourself in an awkward position. Aside from not wanting to be a disappointment, you can build trust and accountability by helping others. But it’s also good to do your own things first.

Knowing when you’re running out of bandwidth will keep you sane and productive, and you should say no to more work.

Ashira Prossack, communications trainer and coach, says: “You always want to give a good reason, not an excuse, for saying no. This helps the other person see things from your point of view and be more rational rather than reactive.”

6. Choose your goals ruthlessly.

“Reckless prioritization is eliminating what doesn’t drive you to achieve your goals,” says the productivity coach Mike Lamm. “There is always too much to do, too little time & time cannot be managed.”

“So your limited time needs to be invested wisely,” he adds. “When you are clear about your goals, it becomes clear where you need to invest time.”

The key to ruthlessly choosing your goals is deciding when you’ll get your work done, how you’ll do it, how you’ll track your progress (and your team’s progress for managers), and how you use technology.

7. Use the strengths of your team.

When you have more free time, you can approach each project with your best energy, focus, and strengths.

The solution is to delegate or better to work in a team.

There are strengths that are unique to each person. To ensure projects are completed successfully, it is important to work as a team and not in isolation. Every time you give up a task or project that doesn’t match your talents, you open up more opportunities while reducing your workload. In addition, you strengthen yourself and those around you.

If you want to get the best results, find someone to work with instead of taking on all the responsibility yourself.

8. Don’t make the maximum amount, make the optimal amount.

Many tasks don’t require military precision—like writing the “perfect” email or blog post.

While you don’t want to deal with anyone pointing out your numerous grammatical errors, most people won’t even notice them.

Also, most people don’t care about errors if it’s readable. The only thing that matters is whether or not you can get your point across through your words.

Do as much as you need in total. And don’t overexert yourself trying to excel at unimportant tasks.

9. Get rid of unnecessary meetings.

People tend to think that meetings are necessary for everything. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

A University of North Carolina study found that 65% of executives across multiple industries are unable to finish work because of meetings. Additionally, 71% of respondents said meetings are inefficient and unproductive. And according to 64% of respondents, meetings give time to think.

Inevitably, meetings without an agenda are long, off-topic, and inefficient. In other words, if no agenda is presented, no meeting is required.

A better idea would be to use Zoom. This not only saves you time, but is also more convenient. However, excessive use of video conferencing applications can lead to Zoom fatigue. If possible, consider emailing, sending a Slack message, or making a call to your colleague instead of using Zoom.

10. Practice self-compassion.

In times of difficulty or stress, the most important thing to remember is to have compassion for yourself. But of course, this isn’t the easiest feat to perform when you’re having a bad day.

But it’s a little easier if you organize your work in a way that’s more manageable. Don’t forget to use your vacation days and switch off completely during this time. And add some self-care to your calendar.

Also, make sure you spend time doing activities that you enjoy. And try to find ways to decompress daily. If you’re having a tough day, take regular breaks, reduce your workload, and take it easy on yourself.

The bottom line is that we are only human after all.

Photo credits: Andrea Piacquadio; Pixel; Thanks very much!

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