You’re learning something to finish a job at hand before the deadline. A senior drops an email to ‘take care’ of something. And then your boss asks for the status. Work piling up, un-ending deadlines, expectations…sounds familiar?
There is no doubt that employers expect you to complete ‘at least’ 100% of your tasks, meaning you’re supposed to do your job. But your appraisal rating indicates a better hike/compensation if you ‘consistently’ exceed expectations, meaning you’ve got to do something over and above your job.
How can you deal with not just your job, but be innovative and take the initiative to do some of those ’special’ projects?
Relax. Think. Prioritize. Focus. Execute.
Relax. Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of tasks or deadlines at hand. Obviously, you can’t do all of them at the same time, so why worry about all of them at once?
Think. Which are the tasks you can complete independently and which are the ones you need help? Separate tasks based of deadlines, ease, dependencies and estimated time to complete.
Prioritize. Now that you’ve a list of your tasks, set priorities. You don’t need a software of keep track of things, you can do this mentally. Of course, the choice is all yours, whichever works for you. At the end, your list of tasks should look like a pipeline of whole/part of each task – to be completed one by one, within the deadlines and other constraints.
Focus. Break your day into sessions, of maybe an hour or so. Take regular breaks after each session. Begin your day with a plan and assign tasks to each session. Of course, there will be adhoc/urgent things that come up all the time, so be prepared to re-prioritize on the fly.
Execute. Set up a mental box around yourself during each session. Nothing else should interfere, unless of course, there are emergencies. Concentrate and work like a person on mission. Everything else can wait.
What next?
Set aside at least 30-60 minutes in the middle or at the end of the day for research, or extra ‘work’. Dig up things and understand where your group/organization is heading. Dig new trends. Brainstorm on which/how you add value to your team.
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Tags: Multitasking, priority, Workload
This is a good one. One important thing I learnt is, no matter what I do there is a limit of how much I can do. If I panic, the limit obviously squeezes and does no good. So it doesn’t matter how much of work is at your hands, just do it.
Another principle somebody told me is watertank model, you can fill water into a tank only till its capacity, excess water will overflow.
Nobody can make miracles.