Hello there again.
Odd title but very appropriate is you find yourself going round in circles with too much to do. This happens from time to time to me too, so I know what it is like. Usually it’s because of:
1 Too many things to do that will take quite a bit of time to do, so they never get started and just pile up.
2 Constant interruptions so that you can never get anything finished.
3 A mounting number of tasks where you cannot complete them until someone else gets back to you or completes their part of the job.
Dealing with any of the above leads to a feeling of loss of control, increased frustration and high anxiety.
So how can it all be rationalised? This is what I do now:
1 Work out what only I can do and delegate the rest.
2 Allocate a sensible amount of time to a piece of work. If you know it will take 2 hours, give it that and take no calls or interruptions. Do not check email.
3 Stop checking email for more ‘must be done now’ actions. Learning to not react is the best way to sort out the things you really need to do right now. Most people don’t but lots of message senders want you to react immediately as it makes no difference to them if you have to abandon your work to sort out their issue.
If the above appears a bit hard on other people, that’s fine.
Having too much detail to sort out while the phone rings all the time will drive you to distraction. Have a good long think about how to prevent this happening and once you have a plan that will work and that will stick to, it all becomes a lot easier to manage.
All the best-Roy Lewis