Are you working longer hours, under stress constantly, and worried about various parts of the project that you just took on?
How To Control Being Overwhelmed?
That’s called being overwhelmed and to overcome that nagging sense of worry, you must maintain control. I know maintaining control is hard when deadlines are coming at you from so many directions.
First, you need to, identify the crucial moments for your project and the steps they require. Then, just like scheduling meetings with important clients, schedule specific times for these crucial tasks.
Believe me, having a timeline eliminates the stress of worrying about whether you’ll get everything done, and scheduling your crucial tasks according to the timeline will ensure you stay on track and you are not overwhelmed at the last minute.
One way to add more time to your daily working schedule (and thus optimize your performance), is to try out the following time-honored steps. (We will move on to more detailed strategies after these are put to work.)
Your Productivity Time-honored Steps
- Keep a notebook–make notes to clear your head.
- Multiple project? –Break them down into a long range to-do lists. From big to small.
- Multi-task or no?—No!– Focus on one task at a time and you will understand that you will move faster to completion.
- Coordinate your projects, by creating a checklist. From here you can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
- Set up a major Workflow Scheduler using the Pomdoro Technique as an example. Since your designing work is so thought intense and creative driven, I would suggest the 1 hour on with 15 minutes off method. Do a work sprint for 4-5 full hours then take 3-4 hours of down-time and then work 4-5 hours at your leisure with breaks. (This can become your standardized timed schedule for all your workloads) Find out what works best for you.
- What to do with your down-time you ask? Whatever you want! However, some suggestions are to use only 30 minutes to check on your notifications for that time. You can get your desk and apps organized again or you can give yourself a reward. Go for a walk or even take a power nap.
Conclusion
These awesome steps, though short and concise, will, not only make you more productive, but if you track how many sprints you have done in a day, they will give you the peace of mind of knowing that you are doing enough deliverable work. It should be very satisfying knowing that you have done eight to ten hours of distraction-free work in a day. Too often, people work for 12 hours a day or more and yet are unsure at the end of it exactly how much we have accomplished. This is because so much of that time was wasted reading email, answering the phone, surfing the Web, hiding from the family. . If you have done 10 hours of uninterrupted sprints, then you’ll feel guilt-free when you sneak off early to engage the family.