OVERWHELMED: 8 Ways to Feel Better in 30 Days
As I speak with industry colleagues and contacts, the concept of overwhelm and the unrelenting quantity of tasks to be done is the most common theme I’m hearing.
Many of you are feeling the weight of your responsibilities more acutely than ever. My hope is that this article can help you understand why everybody feels so overwhelmed all the time, and give you specific, actionable things you can do to feel a little better at work within the next 30 days. Of course, these are generic recommendations, and working together we will precisely diagnose and create action plans for your enterprise and organization’s unique brand of overwhelm. But I hope there’s something helpful in here for you right now.
What’s Causing Overwhelm for Music, Audio, and Creator Companies?
Overwhelm at work can stem from industry-specific challenges and broader workplace trends.
Rapid Technological Advancement
Constant Updates and Learning: The rapid pace of advancements in technology—in product development, operations, marketing tech, or otherwise—means employees must continually update their skills and knowledge. This can be overwhelming, especially when combined with day-to-day responsibilities, and against a backdrop of declining investments by companies into Learning and Development (L&D) programs.
New Tools: Introducing new software and hardware tools requires time for integration and training, which can disrupt regular workflows and add to the workload.
Accelerating Product Refreshes and Lifecycles
Pressure to Ship: The increasing competitive rivalry we are now seeing places increasing expectations on companies to continuously innovate, redesign, update, refresh—and release new products and new versions. This creates significant pressure on teams across the organization, which may be accustomed to longer, less-frequent product release cycles, and requires significant cultural and functional evolution.
Assumed Quality: Short product development cycles demand quick turnarounds from Testing and Quality teams, leaving little room for error and putting pressure on teams to meet tight deadlines. Customers not only expect, but demand flawless performance of new products, and they are highly intolerant—and vocal—when companies don’t get things right.
Remote and Hybrid Work
Communication Barriers: Remote and hybrid work models can lead to communication challenges, misunderstandings, and a lack of cohesion among teams. This can result in inefficiencies and additional stress if companies don’t invest in proactively developing a distributed work culture, way of working, and designate time for building high-performing teams.
Blurring of Work-Life Boundaries: The flexibility of remote work can sometimes blur the boundaries between work and personal life, making it harder to disconnect and lead to burnout. Burnout shatters productivity and team cohesiveness, results in absenteeism and disengagement, and ultimately leads to employee turnover, which is far more expensive than retaining an onboarded team member. It can take six months or longer for a new hire to become a net producer of value (as opposed to a net consumer).
Resource Constraints
Narrow Margins: Tight budgets can limit the ability to hire additional staff or invest in necessary resources, leading to overworked employees and increased stress. MI (Musical Instrument) and Pro Audio companies, in particular, have a reputation for running extremely lean organizations, often pursuing numerous objectives simultaneously, in a market often lacking significant scale economy.
Talent Shortages: Finding and retaining skilled talent in a highly specialized industry can be challenging, putting more pressure on existing staff to fill the gaps. The industry has earned a reputation for relatively uncompetitive wages relative to more-mass market opportunities, leading some top talent to pursue better-paying jobs.
Thanks. Now I Feel Terrible. What Can I Do About It?
Never fear, I’m here not just to remind you what’s making you feel overwhelmed; I’m prepared to help make things better for you and your team.
Prioritize EVERYTHING
Prioritize tasks. Prioritize projects. Prioritize initiatives. Prioritize markets. Prioritize customers. Prioritize headcount changes. Prioritize problems. Having a force-ranked list can have a tremendous calming effect for you and those around you. It can significantly reduce the number of decisions or judgment calls you need to make each day, because that work is already done.
1. Use the Eisenhower Matrix: You’ve heard this one a million times because it works. Of course you can build a complicated weighted algorithm and consider all the constituent parts… or you can just start placing things on the two-by-two. I advocate for the latter: you want this to be fast and painless. You don’t want to become a professional prioritizer; you just want less overwhelm! So categorize tasks into four quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important. This helps you identify and focus on items that truly matter while delegating or eliminating less-critical ones.
Do This: Spend 15 minutes every Monday morning categorizing your to-do list using the Eisenhower Matrix.
2. Set Daily Goals: Identify the top three tasks that need to be accomplished each day to stay focused and prevent overwhelm. Completing these critical tasks will provide a sense of accomplishment and direction.
Do This: Write down the top three tasks to complete each day.
Imagine what it would feel like if you consistently completed your top three tasks daily. How might that unblock your ability to spend more time on high-impact, but low time-sensitivity items, such as strategic planning?
Own Your Time
There are lots of productivity systems out there. Many fancy, mostly complicated, some expensive. But in my eyes, the most effective productivity system is the calendar. What goes on your calendar reflects your priorities (see above), or lack thereof. If you don’t designate time for it, it’s likely either not going to get done, or to get done at the last minute, at night, or on the weekend. Which, see burnout above.
3. Time Blocking: Allocate specific blocks of time for different tasks and adhere to the schedule to enhance productivity and manage workload efficiently. This method helps in creating a structured workday and minimizes distractions.
Do This: Block time on your calendar for the top items on your priority list. Start with your daily top three and work down from there. This is a great opportunity to review and cull any meetings that are unnecessary so that you can…
4. Defend Your Time: Never accept a meeting request for which you don’t understand that the matter at hand requires a live discussion (and cannot be resolved asynchronously), that your participation is necessary to achieve the desired outcome, that there is a desired outcome that all participants understand, that you and participants have all relevant background information for a productive meeting, that you understand the expectations of what you will prepare and bring into the meeting, that you have sufficient time to prepare for the meeting and not come in cold, and ideally, pre-read documents to ensure that the meeting is as brief as possible to accomplish its objective.
Do This: For the next 30 days, decline all meeting requests for which the above criteria are not provided. Challenge meeting culture upward.
Imagine a future in which you had no more than three 20-minute meetings per day. How would you reinvest your reclaimed time?
Prioritize Your Wellbeing
Your wellbeing is the foundation of your productivity. Neglecting your physical and mental health can lead to burnout, decreased performance, and long-term health issues. (Ask me how I know!) Prioritizing your wellbeing involves making conscious choices to integrate healthy habits into your daily routine, ensuring you have the energy and focus needed to excel in your work and personal life.
5. Exercise and Nutrition: Incorporate regular physical activity and maintain a healthy diet to boost energy levels and reduce stress, which can lead to improved focus and productivity.
Do This: Find at least one call you can take while walking, or in-person meeting you can run as a walk-and-talk, three times a week; and increase fresh or frozen vegetables at every meal.
6. Limit Notifications: Notifications can be a constant source of distraction, interrupting your workflow and reducing your ability to focus. By limiting non-essential notifications, you can create a more conducive environment for deep work and sustained concentration.
Do This: Declare Notification Bankruptcy! Turn everything off, and then add back only what you can’t live without, like calls and texts. This isn’t just on your phone; it’s on your computer too. You probably do not need to be notified every time you get an email or Slack message! In fact, you can experiment with closing those apps and only check them on a fixed schedule if you really want to get radical about it.
Imagine the difference in your focus and productivity if you were no longer constantly interrupted by notifications. How could limiting notifications impact your ability to think more deeply and work on harder, more impactful problems?
Build Your “Board of Directors”
Support from others, whether through mentorship, friendship, coaching, or consulting, is vital in managing overwhelm and sustaining your resilience and success. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a strategic move to leverage others’ expertise and perspectives. By getting the right support, you can focus on your strengths and ensure that critical aspects of your work are handled effectively.
7. Executive Coaching: Engaging an experienced coach can provide valuable insights, strategies to improve your leadership and functional skills, and work on your weaknesses—known and unknown. An executive coach can help you navigate complex challenges, improve your decision-making abilities, and achieve your professional goals.
Do This: Ask around among friends, colleagues, and others you admire to see if they can make any recommendations for coaching.
8. Management Consulting: As an operator, you excel in running today’s business, but the VUCA—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—environment we face today requires a different set of skills. Bringing in outside help for areas like strategy development, innovation, transformation, and organizational improvement can provide an outsider’s fresh perspective and help you deliver the company performance you aspire to.
Do This: Identify an area where external expertise would be helpful and engage a management consultant to start getting it off your to-do-list. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.)
Imagine the impact of having specialized expertise to guide your strategy and operational improvements, like scenario and contingency planning. How could that transform your approach to handling complex business challenges?
Conclusion
Feeling overwhelmed at work is a challenge many face, but by implementing these strategies, you can begin to regain control and improve your productivity and wellbeing. I invite you to contact Dan Radin Strategy for an initial consultation to help replace corporate overwhelm with the calm that comes from pursuing a clear, concise, and compelling strategy that motivates and inspires your entire team through shared connection to purpose. Let’s work together to create a more focused and effective work environment.