Goodbye to Overwhelm

If my clients share one thing, it’s a feeling of overwhelm.  The demand on their time and their talent is relentless.  There’s the pressure to spend time with people who need them – boss, peers, direct reports, customers.   There’s the question of where to put their energy and focus.  The here-and-now?  The future?  How do they decide which meetings to attend and which ones to skip?  It can all seem endless.

While I can’t give a complete solution in a short blog, I want to offer something many of my most successful clients do.

First, they identify a very short list of key people and actions they want to focus on.  Here’s one client’s list:

–  Discuss career development with each of her direct reports
–  Stay in touch with key stakeholders in the company’s headquarters
–  Review the team’s top priorities and how they’re progressing
–  Brainstorm/read/even daydream about the team’s future direction
–  Meet with her boss to listen to his concerns and issues – not to share her own
–  Praise someone on the team for good work

Your list may be different, and, yes, there are many other things she has to do. However, the things on this list ground her, and they have become sacrosanct.  How does she make them so?  She uses her calendar.

For example, she schedules a quarterly meeting with each of her direct reports to discuss their development, she goes to lunch with her boss every month just to listen, she schedules 2 hours a month for herself to review team priorities and progress, and every Monday her calendar says “look for something good this week and share it.”

Of course, this only works because she allows absolutely nothing to shift these commitments.  I challenge you to try this.  Come up with your own short list and for the next 3 months honor it.  If it works, keep going.  All you’ve got to lose is your overwhelm!