#88 The battle of Work and Time

Follow these tips when you are overwhelmed with your work making you feel that you are productive enough.

Work always seems to be never ending, your tasks keep on piling every time you think about work. Often, you feel overwhelmed and doubt that you are ineffective or just unproductive about the day. Well, is that you or people around you in general? Before you say that she is so productive or he is doing so much in his life, take a breath and applaud yourself for showing up everyday, at the least.

But, truth to be told, we all need to self introspect and see what are we focussing on and how do we aim to achieve more. For those who feel that you are running in circles and despite your best efforts aren’t able to get the desired results or kinda burnt out from the process, Go take a break and read my last blog for more motivation here

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Okay, so let’s call the elephant in the house, how do people manage their time so well that they carve out time for everything- work, family, friends and Netflix and chill. How are they so out and about every time you track them down on social media or get in touch with them. This is no rocket science and I will shatter this barrier for you right in this blog. But, prior to that I want to let you know that everyone has highs and lows, it’s okay for not being productive every time and you too can take a break from delivering. This is not just about your work but also for the other key aspects of your life.

I didn’t realise my potential and my scope of work until I started pursuing every good opportunity that knocked my door. My measure of success or productivity is not defined by the number of hours I am putting in or how much praise I am getting for my actions, rather it is defined by the impact that I try to make and the extent I can go to deliver the same. I am not open about my work and life on my social media platforms you might just notice some posts and few generic updates going up for my community while a few of my friends are acing their content game with reels and stories to talk about their work, current life and thoughts. Last month I was meeting one of such close friends and we were talking about what has been keeping us busy and related updates. We both usually remain quite excited to discuss some new things or projects we are working on. And out of no where she got amazed and said that she wasn’t aware about any of these projects and I remain so low- key about them until they are delivered. 

And maybe I was taken aback by that one comment, which manifested today’s blog but also made me rethink on my capacity to hold on projects. I am also one of those who feel that there’s so much more to do and here I am stuck with these simple tasks or feel unproductive about myself. And this girl is already amazed at the work I am currently taking up. Am I really doing enough? And If yes, then how am I able to achieve it? 

Context around the work in progress that time: I was preparing for a competitive exam, switched my full time job and was adjusting to the new role, of course writing weekly blogs and working partially on my venture, recording a live course with Unacademy and lastly, gearing up to deliver some guest lectures next month.

Despite doing all that, what my mind was processing: I have to rebuild a team for my venture, need to start interviewing candidates, I have to close collaboration discussions and how should I regain the traction on my social media platforms back, I need to find time to read and visit my friends. 

Yet, If I look from an outsider lens, I was doing enough and one question was how? Was I cutting down on sleep or consuming energy drinks to keep my focus in? I think short answer is ‘I was planning better or you can say assessing my time better’. You may think that multitasking is an art and the trick to achieve more, I would like to put a word of cation that every action may not always give back positive results. While, I was up on my game, there have been days when I wanted to break my routine and just disappear, or times, when I have misaligned priorities. At the end, it’s all a learning game to find what works for you the best and believe me- this pattern is unique for everyone and even for that person the pattern keeps changing.

These are some tips that kept me on my toes and try out my luck:

• Manage your Calendar: This might sound bizarre but you have to align your three calendars together- work, life and personal schedule. You may think that work calendar is highly unpredictable, well certainly it is but you can at least manage your key deadlines or projects into the calendar to ensure you don’t miss on them. I am forgetful by nature and until I put down things on paper, it doesn’t compartmentalise well in my head. I tried multiple apps/ calendar format but nothing was working out well for me.

  My yearly planner/ diary came in very handy and helped me put my tasks together. This was the first time I have used a proper diary and didn’t know what a game changer that notebook has been for me. You can see a week in one go and writing down future tasks or jot down thoughts at one place helped me clear my mind and I didn’t really have to use my headspace to remember it now. 

• To-Do Lists: People usually are bored or not a big fan of creating lists because they feel them as more scary that beneficial. But I think I jot down my mind on the paper and now once all work is out there, I use such lists to prioritise or define dependency. Since now I have a week by week view right in front, I divide my to-do list across weeks to ensure I don’t miss out on important timelines and also see that my days are planned in an eased out way.

  Folks usually feel intimidated by the length of their task list and end up ticking off nothing, and this problem was well taken care by my planner as It kept reminding me that I shouldn’t overburden my day with tasks which is working out wonderfully for me.

• Voice out your bandwidth: We often hear that you need to learn to say no or you have to be a yes person if you want to succeed in your career. My two cents are that you need to clearly lay out your current tasks in hand during team discussions and seek guidance on prioritisation as and when necessary.

  This helps you in two ways, one your day work might change but not mind boggling for a day and second, you learn the art of prioritisation safeguarding yourself and your team for burnout in future.

• Compartmentalise your time: Imagine what happens when you take a larger bite of a pie more than what you can chew comfortably? It becomes messy and you might end up making a fool of yourself in front of the crowd. This is a similar pattern you will find in case you take more than your mind can mange in terms of tasks or over commit on your projects. This is where thought clarity has to kick in, otherwise you might just feel that you are not doing enough or not find yourself effective as compared to others.

  Bucketing your work will aid you with peace of mind leading to easy traceability on all work fronts. A classic example is to have a dedicated time slot for the checking emails, team building and for your core work. 

• Find your best ‘Focus Time’: Now, you might say that we go to office everyday so our work hours are kinda fixed. What I mean by the focus time is the time slot where you feel most pumped up and energetic/ fresh to attentively close of important work or tasks that need utmost precision/ brainstorming. That can be morning or evening depending on your meeting schedule or your team active hours. The idea is to find time for your best hour that make your close your work on time without stalling the project work.

  For me, early mornings are super active wherein I plan to close all my data analysis work and sending new emails/ responding to emails in inbox which can set up the work day for my team and other related folks. The work closed in first two hours set my mood for the day and leave me with the assurance that all my key tasks are ticked off and free up my bandwidth to take up unexpected tasks, in case they pop up.

• Number of Work Hours viz Productivity: Don’t confuse your number of hours of work with your day productivity. You might be at work for 7 hours but spending 6 out of those 7 hours in day to day affairs and meetings. Would you classify the day as productive or fruitful? May or may not be depending on the fact whether those discussions reached a conclusion state or still in progress. There would be day where your tasks aren’t ticked off as planned or you just get stuck in some unimagined issue at work.

  Correlation won’t be a wise idea, instead factor in your task spill over and how much of your plate is cleared during the day and set a new tone for the next day.
  “Both good and bad days should end with productivity. Your mood affairs should never influence your work.” – Greg Evans

• Multitasking is a myth: You might question that I have been doing unrelated projects which have nothing in common and also saying that multi-tasking is a myth. Before you presume me pretentious, let me clarify that there is a thin line of difference between work on different projects and focussing on two tasks at the same time, If I ask you to be take down minutes of a meeting and also send an email alongside, what will happen? You will miss out on the key point if any while you send the email during the meeting. And this is the exact drawback of multi-tasking because our brain is not equipped to think in all directions at the same point of time.

  Now, revealing my secret to ace different projects is point 4 in junction with managing my calendar.Each project has a set time slot during which I pay attention only to the related tasks and not mix other work. This keeps your focus under control and let your brain efficiently deliver in less time.

Above tips have immensely helped me not only with effective delivery but also reduce my anxiety and stress about the work I have. It calms my mind with a clarity of timelines at which I will put my key work one by one. Until I put that activity only planner, that line keeps running back and forth in my head distorting my focus on current job. And that often is as simple as sending a confirmation mail for an event. Worse case that happens is that I start multitasking and alternating my headspace between core job and side venture which consumes more than dedicated time and also leave me in sigh.

“You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. You decide. And if you don’t decide, others will decide for you.” ~Tony Morgan