Ever get close to burning out from a heavy workload? Your boss is pushing you to complete twenty tasks this week, yet you know you can only handle five or six. So you stay late and dine on coffee and pizza, trying desperately to finish at least ten.
And after you finish ten tasks (sans sleep and a healthy meal), another twenty tasks hit you next week, giving you a total of thirty. Deeper and deeper you sink as the weeks drag on.
Sound familiar?
As a former manager, I often heard about cases like this from my team. Heck, I experienced cases like this myself. Over time, I developed a way to compensate for these unrealistic & heavy job workloads. I had to; I would have gone insane had I not.
First, it's important to realize that it's not always possible to complete all the tasks you've been assigned. Your boss may make you think you can. Even you may think you can. But c'mon, be realistic. Look at all that work. If you feel that troubling pinch in your gut, then trust your gut: you have too much work.
Second, let your boss know. Not all managers are able (or willing) to help you lighten the load, but you still need to alert your manager about this condition. Give your boss a chance to fix it if possible.
Third, find out the source of all these tasks. Someone asked for this work, so go seek that person out. Ask that person how urgent and necessary this work is; chances are, some of it can be postponed or done by someone else with more time.
Fourth, prioritize your tasks. After speaking with the sources, you'll have an idea of the urgency and importance of each task. This can allow you to prioritize each of the tasks and do the most urgent and most important first. Ideally, your manager should help you with this, but if he/she is not able to, do it yourself.
Finally, do the work. Do them in priority order. Realize that some of the items won't get done. If you can, set clear expectations with your team and the sources of work. This isn't always easy, as many will argue and try to coax a higher priority for their task. But hey, there are only so many hours in the day. The more they argue, the less time you'll have to finish everyone's tasks.
In my opinion, your direct manager or project manager should handle this kind of task prioritization for you. That person would/should also have the power to delegate and balance the workload across the team, which is something you may not have the authority to do.
Unfortunately, managers aren't always able or willing to do this. If that's the case, hopefully these tips will help.
What have you done to handle a heavy job workload?
In the introduction of Part Four, Conley includes this quote from Abraham Maslow:
The difference between the great and good societies and the regressing, deteriorating societies is largely in terms of the entrepreneurial opportunity and the number of such people in the society. I think everyone would agree that the most valuable 100 people to bring into a deteriorating society would be not 100 chemists, or politicians, or professors, or engineers, but rather 100 entrepreneurs.
If you're an entrepreneur, know that you have the grand opportunity to improve society and make a real impact on our everyday lives.
Can money buy you happiness? The short answer: YES.
Justin Wolfers, a frequent guest blogger on Freakonomics and an Assistant Professor of Business and Public Policy at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, recently wrote a series of posts on The Economics of Happiness:
UPDATED 5/1/2008: I've added parts 5 and 6 to the list.
In these posts, he provides statistical evidence that:
Rich people are happier than poor people.
Richer countries are happier than poorer countries.
As countries get richer, they tend to get happier.
In this CNBC video with Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson (also an Assistant Professor of Business and Public Policy at Wharton), Wolfers explains that the survey questions included, "Did you smile a lot yesterday?" and "Did you laugh a lot, yesterday?" - which can offer more absolute measures of happiness than simply asking, "How happy are you?"
As it turns out, richer people smile and laugh more often than poorer people.
This all comes in stark contrast to the Easterlin Paradox, which postulates that relative income - the amount you make compared with others around you - is more important than absolute income. In the CNBC video, Stevenson states that relative income is still important, but it may not be as important as the Easterlin Paradox suggests.
In the NY Times article, "Maybe Money Does Buy Happiness After All", Richard Easterlin (a Professor of Economics at University of Southern California) agrees that people in richer countries are more satisfied, but isn't sure that their wealth is causing their satisfaction—their survey answers may be reflecting cultural differences and offering skewed data.
Still, the data Wolfers and Stevenson have amassed is pretty compelling. They combed through reams and reams of post-war surveys and research to come up with their conclusions. Take this chart from the 2006 General Social Survey, for instance. The survey asked: "Taken all together, how would you say things are these days?"
Looks like money is sure buying happiness for the rich here.
Now for some Friday fun. If you work in the web industry and do web design, web development, SEO, affiliate marketing, and/or web standards, you've seen this by now. (If not, where have you been?)
Who's behind this rhyme? Charles (Chuck) Lewis, the Houston, TX guy who's background is as varied as a spin of the roulette wheel. He's been rapping since his early teen years at his local church. His style of gospel rap earned him the moniker the Poetic Prophet. After a few false starts, he started a record label called Mo Serious Entertainment to promote himself and some other acts.
Somewhere along the line, he became a Project Coordinator/Marketing Specialist for Pop Labs, where, I'm guessing, he learned about the complicated world of search engines, web standards, and ever-changing web browsers.
One day, inspiration struck him, and he began applying his rapping skills to his new trade. He recorded a handful of YouTube videos that became viral. And now, he's being mentioned on Valleywag, Compiler from Wired.com, and ShoeMoney.
Looks like his SEO rap has been great for his SEO.
Why are you still there? You know you want to quit, yet you're still hanging around. Is it for the money? The free snacks? Or perhaps you're a glutton for punishment.
Within the technology & Internet industries, it's become normal to jump around a bit. So when do you know it's time to jump? If most of this list applies to you… then jump!
Most of your coworkers don't wash their hands after using the bathroom (especially after a number 2)
The company cafeteria is skimping so much that you suddenly notice all the cats in the neighborhood are gone
Your company is doing so poorly that you're embarrassed to tell people where you work
You fantasize about a meteor striking your company headquarters, just so they'd have to shut down and give you a few days off
There's a personal stash of alcohol/pot/cocaine in your desk for those extra-hard days
You bring novels or magazines with you into the bathroom and read read read
You're so bored that you spend most of your day playing games on Facebook or watching free South Park episodes
You only attend the meetings with free food; every other meeting, you skip with the excuse, "I'm too busy"
You've gotten really, really good at foosball
You start posting Dilbert cartoons all over your cube
Ever get close to burning out from a heavy workload? Your boss is pushing you to complete twenty tasks this week, yet you know you can only handle five or six. So you stay late and dine on coffee and pizza, trying desperately to finish at least ten.
