How To Be More Efficient & Productive When You're Feeling Overwhelmed At Work

> When work feels overwhelming, remember that you're going to die - funny quotes on Pinterest.

If you have known me or via discord more often than not I will be saying that I am quite busy with the reports that I am doing daily. And yes I am living proof of being overwhelmed at work most of the time. Though there are some leeways along the day still if I will be rating the overwhelmedness level I will say it is around 80.

Now, why not resign? Since you are already overwhelmed at work? That thought always pops out in my mind every time that drained but it is a thought I never took action to it because it is hard to look for another job. Plus the fact that I will need to prepare again the documentation and interviews all over again makes me lazy.

A constant grumbler at work I always tend to voice out my concerns to my lead which I appreciate and since we had our session before let me share with you some of the tips that she had mentioned to avoid being overwhelmed at work.

Some become useful to me and the others may be useful to you.

Admit that you are overwhelmed.

When dealing with workplace stress, it's easy to believe you're the only one who is suffering. It's in our nature to try to solve everything on our own. I will always remember handling one report because I don't want to be a hindrance to my co-workers. It took me a whole day to finish it!

You may have not noticed it yet but this is harmful in the long run—not only to you but also to your co-workers and employer.

What I have learned is the importance of admitting that we struggling so that you can get help from co-workers and managers.

This will assist you in dealing with feelings of overwhelm and achieving a more productive mindset for completing tasks at work.

Some of the things that I noticed each time burned out are the following:

• feeling tired or exhausted

• missing deadlines due to lack of time management

• lacking focus or concentration on tasks at hand

• avoiding responsibilities because they feel too difficult

Have you experienced such things before? Leave a comment below!

Learn How to Say No.

I am guilty on this one. I always say yes each time that a task will be given to me. I remember our conversation with my lead wherein she asked me if it is okay for her to give the report to me for handling and I answered.

Yes and I will grumble later because it is hard and there's no other option for us right?

Knowing our limits will determine whether to accept a project or not. Sometimes, rest and lunchbreak are compromised because we are so eager to commit. As I have shared, I am prone to overcommitting because I have the wrong mindset at work. Well in Hive I always say NO to my friends here, especially to the reports requested. ( Work TP and Hiver TP are way too different!)

Do not feel guilty when you say no to someone I understand that letting someone down is quite hard. Yet, when you try to overdeliver something let us say a rush item that needs to be handled if in case you took the item can you assure that you can deliver it on time given that you also have other stuff to do? Taking it whole may not be a good action but you can give some insights on handling them.

Learn to Delegate

Some of us are experts in the field of work, I always remember my colleagues asking for help in reconciling books from previous years because that is my specialty at work. But when it comes to excelling, VLOOKUP and formulas I suck big time on that, and requires me a good amount of time to understand what needs to be done.

In your team, there are some folks that can do the task rather than you taking the whole workload. Once you know where you excel, delegating and taking action will be quite easy.

Plus productivity-wise it will help everyone manage to complete the task faster.

Take Breaks and Schedule A Time-off.

Our work requires us to be a robot that does things as programmed. I guess that is the case for me. Errors should be minimized to avoid financial loss thus it takes extra effort to review everything. But outside work always remembers that we are not machines and we tend to experience burnout and demotivation.

Now taking breaks is a must. Sometimes you will need to freshen up your mind. I would always have such experience wherein I spend a whole day figuring out what happened to a certain item that I am reconciling but after taking my break and I stayed away from the computer it took me a few minutes to figure out the discrepancy.

A personal time off should always be used! This is the reason why leave credits are added each month. A productive mind at times is a mind at peace. ( I need to remind myself always to take my time off as the last one that I got was a few months ago.)

Conclusion

Finding a work-life balance does not mean you will never experience overwhelming feelings. Yet, it does imply that if you do become overwhelmed and experience severe stress, the consequences will be less harmful to your effectiveness and happiness. Learning how to deal with work challenges is a skill that will serve anyone in any field well throughout their lives.