WEBVTT - Cope with being overwhelmed

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is about how to cope with being overwhelmed.

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<v Speaker 1>By recognizing the exact nature of your overwhelming situation, you

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<v Speaker 1>can take steps to make life feel more in control.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip comes from Bill Burnett and Dave Evans new

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<v Speaker 1>book Designing Your Work Life, the follow up to Design

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<v Speaker 1>Your Life. This book teaches how to use design principles

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<v Speaker 1>to improve your time at the office. We've probably all

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<v Speaker 1>been in bad jobs, but in many cases Burnett and

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<v Speaker 1>Evans right, people find themselves in jobs that they generally like.

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<v Speaker 1>It's just that circumstances are stressful. These stressful circumstances come

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<v Speaker 1>in different flavors, which Burnett and Evans call the hydra overwhelmed,

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<v Speaker 1>the happy overwhelmed, and the hyper overwhelm. They required different

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<v Speaker 1>steps to mitigate The hydra overwhelm takes its name from

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<v Speaker 1>the multi headed Greek monster that grew new heads every

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<v Speaker 1>time one was chopped off. Perhaps this feels a bit

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<v Speaker 1>like your life if you work in a place that

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<v Speaker 1>has been made lean to the point where everybody is

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<v Speaker 1>doing the equivalent of two to three jobs. Maybe you're

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<v Speaker 1>reporting to too many managers or running too many projects simultaneously.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe you're having to pull information from too many sources,

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<v Speaker 1>or you have to use legacy systems that are cumbersome

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<v Speaker 1>and badly designed. The happy overwhelm is when you just

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<v Speaker 1>have too much of a good thing going on. You've

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<v Speaker 1>volunteered for all the cool, shiny stuff. You love all

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<v Speaker 1>of it, but you are one person with twenty four

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<v Speaker 1>hours in a day, and it is physically impossible to

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<v Speaker 1>work for all of them. And finally, the hyper overwhelm

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<v Speaker 1>happens in startup situations where there are no organizational norms

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<v Speaker 1>and very little support. It's not that you're reporting to

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<v Speaker 1>two different managers. It's that you really aren't sure who

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<v Speaker 1>your manager is because you're growing so fast that there's

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<v Speaker 1>no organization chart. Anyway, when you find yourself overwhelmed, ask

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<v Speaker 1>yourself if it's a hydra, happy or hyper kind of overwhelmed,

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<v Speaker 1>and then you can figure out what to do. If

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<v Speaker 1>it's hydra, you can either drop tasks or ask permission

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<v Speaker 1>to drop ones that are hurting your productivity. In the

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<v Speaker 1>permission conversations be specific. Burnett and Evans right say, that

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<v Speaker 1>you will be more productive if you can use the

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<v Speaker 1>version of your software versus the version that you're stuck with,

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<v Speaker 1>or if you can write a monthly report instead of

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<v Speaker 1>a weekly one, or if you can split your clients

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<v Speaker 1>into a's and bees, with the a's getting responses in

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<v Speaker 1>twenty four hours and the bees getting responses in ninety

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<v Speaker 1>six hours. Most managers are happy to have people propose

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<v Speaker 1>solutions to their problems, so you don't need to fear

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<v Speaker 1>this converse station As for happy overwhelmed, well, the problem

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<v Speaker 1>here is that you may have a tougher boss yourself.

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<v Speaker 1>You've chosen to do all these amazing things, and you

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<v Speaker 1>are now paying the price. The solution here is often

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<v Speaker 1>to start delegating. Figure out which of these tasks you

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<v Speaker 1>are uniquely qualified to do and which can be given

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<v Speaker 1>to someone else. Maybe with you editing or approving at work,

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<v Speaker 1>you can ask for more resources, people, budgets, and so forth.

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<v Speaker 1>At home, maybe you can hire a cleaning service, send

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<v Speaker 1>out the laundry, or hire a personal assistant. The point

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<v Speaker 1>is to multiply your existing hours, because you are not

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<v Speaker 1>going to magically get more. Finally, for the hyper overwhelmed,

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<v Speaker 1>Burnett and Evans recommend thinking of the situation as a

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<v Speaker 1>marathon rather than a sprint. Run the mile you're in,

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<v Speaker 1>take care of yourself, making sure that your non negotiables

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<v Speaker 1>like sleep and exercise happen, and finally, change your story

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<v Speaker 1>rather than I'm frantic because I have no idea what

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<v Speaker 1>I'm doing. You could repeat it's so exciting to be

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<v Speaker 1>figuring this all out. Positive thoughts go a long way

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<v Speaker 1>in all of these situations. Check in a few weeks

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<v Speaker 1>later to see if the situation seems more under control.

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<v Speaker 1>Are the steps you're taking working. If so, great, If not,

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<v Speaker 1>figure out what else you need to change. Things can

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<v Speaker 1>be overwhelming for a while, but you don't want them

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<v Speaker 1>to be overwhelming permanently. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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<v Speaker 1>our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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<v Speaker 1>You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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<v Speaker 1>Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at

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<v Speaker 1>Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four then breakfast po.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>Podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>is spelled out with all the letters thanks so much.

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<v Speaker 1>Should I look forward to staying in touch? Before Breakfast

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