What To Do When There's Too Much To Do (15 page)

Perhaps you're chasing after achievement rainbows in the hopes of finding pots of gold, destroying yourself in the process. If so, your lack of energy, extreme exhaustion, and inefficient, unproductive practices may be robbing your soul of the greatest joys life has to offer.

You lose productivity rather than increase it when you overextend yourself. You're not a machine; you can't work more hours and produce more just because you decide not to turn off your power switch. In fact, productivity drops off drastically after eight hours on the job. When you think about it, it's clear that in many cases doing less work, rather than more, is the better, more fruitful choice.

Let's say you're working on a rush project and decide to put in eleven-hour days for the next three weeks to finish it. How much do you
really
think you're going to get done in those extra three hours per day? Let's say your productivity drops by 25 percent after eight hours of non-stop work. Then, because you're not going to get enough rest, it will fall another 25 percent for every hour after the first eight. Basically, your productivity is cut in half after the first eight hours of work. For three extra hours a day for five days, you'll put in an extra fifteen hours, but it's only the equivalent of seven and a half hours. So in those fifty-five hours, you'll have actually netted forty-seven and a half hours of work (assuming everything goes smoothly). You've spent fifteen extra hours to get seven and a half hours—not a great return on investment.

Instead of being depressed because you can't perform at superhuman levels all the time, readjust your expectations to fit your energy levels, and stop running your “battery” dry.

Oh, and by the way, the extra time you spend at work increases your chance of a heart attack by 67 percent.
²⁴
Is it really worthwhile to work those extra hours when the biggest return you're likely to get for them is a heart attack?

Imagine preparing to run a marathon. You know the marathon will require a lot of training and will expend a lot of your energy. After months of training and preparation, months of pushing yourself right to the wall, the marathon day arrives. Do you hit the gym before you head to the course? Of course not! You need to be rested. Your body has limits, and if you're already pushing those limits by running a marathon, you would never try to add more stress.

Handle your life and your schedule in the same manner. Know your limits and stick to them. This workflow process is all about helping you to achieve success while living within those limits. You'll attain greater results while working less, have extra time to enjoy life, and end each day feeling better.

You
can
achieve without overdoing it, and you can start by learning to do the most you can with the energy you already have. Each of us has a finite amount of energy to spend during the day. You could say it's your battery. Not all batteries are equal; so some people can expend more energy in a workday than others. Some people are more efficient at expending
physical energy, and some are more adept at mentally challenging tasks. Regardless, at the end of the day, the battery is drained until it's recharged. You can't use more energy than you have.

Your goal is to equalize your energy expenditure with the level of available energy in your batteries. If you're drained, your performance will show it. Your options are to either reduce your energy expenditure, or increase your battery power.

Don't try to turn into superman or superwoman; be yourself. Learn to recognize your body's signs of tiredness and listen to them. Set realistic goals of what you can accomplish each day, and then reduce your daily tasks until they can fit within your limits. If you have too much to do, use the triage method described in
Chapter 1
to prioritize and cut things out of your to-do lists. Don't push yourself into working beyond your limits. No matter what other people think of your schedule, the reality is that you can push yourself only so far. Too much time at work eats into the energy reserves your body uses to keep you healthy.

If you spend a lot of time fixing your own mistakes, you may be working more hours than you can bodily handle. Do you need to cut back on your work schedule, or do you need to repair your energy habits—or both?

No matter how spectacular you are, you can only grind along at maximum focus for so long before you get tired and mistakes start creeping into your work … and then your productivity drops like a rock. While there can be such a thing as too many breaks, you do need to pull back occasionally to recharge your creativity and energy. You do your best work when you're well-rested. Bodies simply need time for relaxation and recuperation;
there's no practical way around it. So set aside periods of time for restoring your body and taking care of yourself.

First of all, step away from your work occasionally during the day; this is why most state labor laws mandate brief breaks in the morning and afternoon. At the very least, your breaks will clear your mental buffers and help maintain your energy.

Meal breaks are also important. Eat something small every few hours. If you go longer than six hours without eating, your blood sugar levels will drop, and you may become fuzzy-headed. So don't skip lunch or just scarf down a sandwich at your desk. Try to get away for a few minutes. A change in scenery and pace will help you stay sharp.

Don't skip your macro-breaks, either. Take your weekends, holidays, and vacations as often as possible, so you can rest. When work rolls around again, you'll have a fresh charge. Time away from work is an important part of personal productivity, because it's during this time our batteries get fully recharged, rather than half-charged. Just expecting to recuperate while you're thinking about work in front of the television set won't work. To completely recharge your batteries, get your mind off work and do something more enjoyable.

This is easier said than done for some people, who get worried about taking a vacation. They worry they won't be missed; or they dread the volume of work facing them upon their return; or they think a vacation reflects negatively on their commitment to the organization. But once you return and realize the world didn't fall apart and you didn't get fired, you might wonder what took you so long. Open your calendar and plan to get away soon! The true source of productivity isn't nonstop output; it's a refreshed and energized mind, a vacation's specialty. Wasn't recess your favorite part of elementary school?

Our family loves vacations, and we take them often. In 2006, my husband and I took a vacation to Hawaii, sans children, in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. It was a busy time for our business, and I was wondering what would fall through the cracks. I promised my husband I would check in at the office only once a day, early in the morning, as I preach to my audiences. It turned out it wasn't hard to follow my own advice.

When you have no choice but to overwork yourself, try to do so in short bursts separated by longer periods of normal work—or rest. Otherwise, you'll soon hit the wall, and your productivity will diminish sharply.

Hawaii was four hours earlier than my internal clock, so I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to go … at 3:00
A.M.
It took several days for my body to adjust and remain alert past 8:30
P.M.
So while my hubby was still sleeping soundly, I would log on, talk with my office manager, check my e-mail and voicemail, and get ready for relaxation or adventure by the time he woke up.

It's amazing how unimportant things seemed in Hawaii—things I might have jumped on right away while in the office. I just told people I was in Hawaii and would handle it when I got back. Everyone understood and told me to enjoy myself.

We were alone for eight wonderful days, and it really stretched my mind, recharged my energy, and rested my soul. It was definitely worth the pile of work I was buried beneath upon my return. I didn't lose any business, the kids didn't break any bones, and nothing of any consequence happened. I worried for nothing. So take a deep breath, fight your fear, and go for a vacation! You'll maintain your energy, your health, and your sanity.

Reducing your energy expenditure doesn't always mean accomplishing less. In many cases, you can find ways to do the same tasks more efficiently. For example, if you combine a client meeting with lunch, you're taking care of two necessary tasks at once. If you need files from the storage room, take a
short walk on your way back. Answer all your e-mails a few times a day, rather than checking them every few minutes. There are numerous ways to spend less energy on tasks while accomplishing the same amount of work.

I've designed each step of the PWF process to help you reduce your overall energy expenditure. Part of managing your capacity is to remember your limits while finding ways to streamline what you already do each day. You don't have to sacrifice the important things. Just focus on the few things you really need to do; find the fat in your schedule and trim it out.

Are you getting enough sleep? If not, you're basically slamming a wrecking ball through your energy levels.

First, your circadian rhythms are extremely sensitive to the amount of sleep you get each day. As you may know, the word “circadian” is Latin for “about a day.” Variously referred to as the “body clock,” “master clock,” or “biological clock,” your circadian rhythms are regulated by the hypothalamus, an area of your brain that controls energy, activity, and how you physically feel. Each day you have to “reset” your body clock, and thus the need for sleep.

Among other things, sleep (or a lack thereof) can have a tremendous effect on mood. A recent analysis of 500 million Twitter messages, published in
Science
magazine
,
reveal that people all over the world are more likely to express positive emotion in the morning and evenings, with notable dips in between.
²⁵
The researchers believe this daily emotional cycle is influenced by sleep and the above-mentioned circadian rhythms.

In addition, Ben Franklin's advice about “early to bed, early to rise” has proven to be spot on. The earlier you go to bed, the more you'll supercharge your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands play a huge role in your energy level by manufacturing adrenaline, cortisol, and DHEA (steroid hormones). Cortisol
promotes wakefulness; DHEA helps you relax. Sleep deprivation results in the manufacture of too much cortisol, whereas getting plenty of sleep increases the production of DHEA (designed to keep cortisol levels in check). Staying up late one night and sleeping in the following morning doesn't restore your adrenals as well as going to bed well before midnight does.

Furthermore, the human sleep cycle runs in increments of about ninety minutes. If you get only five and a half hours of sleep, you've lopped off your sleep cycle right in the middle, so it's no wonder you feel lethargic. Sleep cycles usually complete at one and a half hours, three hours, four and a half hours, six hours, and seven and a half hours. This is why you sometimes feel refreshed if you awaken before your alarm goes off; but if you fall back asleep, you may feel super groggy when the alarm finally does go off.