The lie: if you get busier, you have to work more hours
 
There are options when more work suddenly hits your desk, overtime is just one of them. Sometimes, it’s the best response. But maybe not as often as we think. In this episode, I define the problem clearly and suggests strategies for clarifying priority and tactics for those times when ‘it just needs to get done’.
  • Work habits and time management.
    • Just working more hours without a thoughtful plan is a bad, but perhaps typical, default response to busyness.
    • Concerns about automatically expanding work time to accommodate additional tasks.
  • Work habits and expectations.
    • Saying yes to everything can be problematic and leads to burnout, suggesting alternative strategies for managing work and personal expectations.
    • The importance of mental shifts and scripts to help individuals say no more effectively and maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life.
  • Self-management and setting boundaries as a self-employed individual.
    • Self-management is key to evaluating commensurate rewards for effort in a business context.
    • The importance of self-management in workplace expectations.
    • Setting boundaries and saying no to avoid burnout.
  • Work-life balance and employment contracts.
    • Setting expectations and reevaluating work-life balance contracts regularly.
    • Employees are pushing back against unclear employment contracts, seeking better work-life balance.
  • Prioritizing work tasks and managing new assignments.
    • Prioritize tasks on a list to manage new work requests.
    • Prioritizing tasks based on absolute values is unhelpful and leads to chaos.
    • Replanning work, using a prioritized list.
  • Prioritizing tasks with a boss.
    • A structured list to prioritize tasks and understand the impact of new priorities on the entire list.
    • Comparing the new priority to the existing list to determine its placement on the list.
    • New work items always show up, despite the existing list of tasks to complete.
    • Estimate how long the new task will take and decide which tasks to remove from the list to make room for it.
  • Prioritizing tasks and managing workload.
    • A conversation with a ‘boss’ about priorities and workload, showing a willingness to communicate and problem-solve.
    • The importance of the list in prioritizing tasks and managing competing demands to have productive conversations.
    • Examining rewards and sacrifices to achieve work-life balance.
  • Managing workload and quality in a fast-paced work environment.
    • Speaker 1 advises reassessing expectations for work items and managing time effectively to avoid burnout.
    • Speaker argues that quality is an illusion in knowledge work and must be strategically managed during crunch time.
  • Managing workload and prioritizing tasks.
    • Reassess assumptions and renegotiating commitments to stakeholders when facing overtime work.
    • Avoid defaulting to sacrificing personal relationships to prioritize work, instead broaden options and negotiate with stakeholders to find solutions.
    • Consider all work and time commitments when negotiating, including skipping staff meetings, working from home, or reassigning tasks to others.
    • Managing trade-offs and time horizon in problem-solving.
  • Timeboxing as a productivity tool.
    • Attitude is important
    • Timeboxing for challenging yourself to focus tightly and deliver work.

A primary takeaway is the value of an ongoing prioritized list of commitments and tasks. After listening, you may be more interested in how to develop and maintain such a list. Attention Compass is a process that will help you create and maintain a useful list through sound backlog management.