Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is about how to cope with being overwhelmed. By
Speaker 1: recognizing the exact nature of your overwhelming situation, you can
Speaker 1: take steps to make life feel more in control. Today's
Speaker 1: tip comes from Bill Burnett and Dave Evans's new book
Speaker 1: Designing Your Work Life, the follow up to Design Your Life.
Speaker 1: This book teaches how to use design principles to improve
Speaker 1: your time at the office. We've probably all been in
Speaker 1: bad jobs, but in many cases Burnett and Evans right,
Speaker 1: people find themselves in jobs that they generally like. It's
Speaker 1: just that circumstances are stressful. These stressful circumstances come in
Speaker 1: different flavors, which Burnett and Evans call the hydra overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: the happy overwhelmed, and the hyper overwhelm. They require different
Speaker 1: steps to mitigate. The hydra overwhelm takes its name from
Speaker 1: the multi headed Greek monster that grew new heads every
Speaker 1: time one was chopped off. Perhaps this feels a bit
Speaker 1: like your life if you work in a place that
Speaker 1: has been made lean to the point where everybody is
Speaker 1: doing the equivalent of two to three jobs. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: reporting to too many managers or are running too many
Speaker 1: projects simultaneously. Maybe you're having to pull information from too
Speaker 1: many sources, or you have to use legacy systems that
Speaker 1: are cumbersome and badly designed. The happy overwhelm is when
Speaker 1: you just have too much of a good thing going on.
Speaker 1: You've volunteered for all the cool, shiny stuff. You love
Speaker 1: all of it, but you are one person with twenty
Speaker 1: four hours in a day, and it is physically impossible
Speaker 1: to work for all of them. And finally, the hyper
Speaker 1: overwhelm happens in startup situations where there are no organizational
Speaker 1: norms and very little support. It's not that you're reporting
Speaker 1: to two different managers. It's that you really aren't sure
Speaker 1: who your manager is because you're growing so fast that
Speaker 1: there's no organization chart. Anyway, when you find yourself overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: ask yourself if it's a hydra, happy or hyper kind
Speaker 1: of overwhelm, and then you can figure out what to do.
Speaker 1: If it's hydra, you can either drop tasks or ask
Speaker 1: permission to drop ones that are hurting your productivity. In
Speaker 1: the permission conversations be specific. Brunette and Evans right say
Speaker 1: that you will be more productive if you can use
Speaker 1: the twenty eighteen version of your software versus the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight version that you're stuck with, or if you
Speaker 1: can write a monthly report instead of a weekly one,
Speaker 1: or if you can split your clients into a's and bs,
Speaker 1: with the a's getting responses in twenty four hours and
Speaker 1: the b's getting responses in ninety six hours. Most managers
Speaker 1: are happy to have people propose solutions to their problems,
Speaker 1: so you don't need to fear this conversation. As for
Speaker 1: happy overwhelm, well, the problem here is that you may
Speaker 1: have a tougher boss yourself. You've chosen to do all
Speaker 1: these amazing things, and you are now paying the price.
Speaker 1: The solution here is often to start delegating. Figure out
Speaker 1: which of these tasks you are uniquely qualified to do
Speaker 1: and which can be given to someone else. Maybe with
Speaker 1: you editing or approving at work, you can ask for
Speaker 1: more resources, people, budgets and so forth. At home, maybe
Speaker 1: you can hire a cleaning service, send out the laundry,
Speaker 1: or hire a personal assistant. The point is to multiply
Speaker 1: your existing hours, because you are not going to magically
Speaker 1: get more, Finally, for the hyper overwhelmed, Burnett and Evans
Speaker 1: recommend thinking of the situation as a marathon rather than
Speaker 1: a sprint. Run the mile you're in, take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: making sure that your non negotiables like sleep and exercise happen,
Speaker 1: and finally, change your story rather than I'm frantic because
Speaker 1: I have no idea what I'm doing, you could repeat
Speaker 1: it's so exciting to be figuring this all out. Positive
Speaker 1: thoughts go a long way in all of these situations.
Speaker 1: Check in a few weeks later to see if the
Speaker 1: situation seems more under control. Are the steps you're taking working?
Speaker 1: If so, great, If not, figure out what else you
Speaker 1: need to change. Things can be overwhelming for a while,
Speaker 1: but you don't want them to be overwhelming permanently. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number
Speaker 1: four then breakfast po. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that
Speaker 1: before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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