Just keep swimming
© Pete Longworth
As I write this, I’m in a place of total overwhelm. There’s so much work to be done. I could work all day, every day and still have an overflowing to-do list. At one point this week my inbox was in the high 200s.
The reason I’m writing this is because I talked to a few friends this week who have had the same “I-can’t-keep-up” feeling, so I thought maybe you might have it too. I’ll tell you what I told them and what I try to remember to also tell myself:
You are one person.
You only have ten fingers and one brain.
You can only do so much.
There will always be work.
There will always be emails.
There will always be something added to your list as soon as you cross something off.
Technology has made it so that things happen a lot more instantly. Maybe that’s why it feels like the work piles up quicker than it did in the past. But no matter how much work there is to be done, breathe. Set reasonable work hours, give it your all in that time, and remember that tomorrow is a new day. Sure, take an evening to get ahead. Maybe a few. Maybe use your weekend to clear out your inbox. But not on a regular basis. You have to take care of you. You aren’t even productive when you reach a point of burn-out. And working around the clock makes the problem worse. If you respond instantly to emails, you are setting the expectation that you give lightening-speed responses. People will learn to expect that from you, and that will inevitably put pressure on you. Just remember it’s self-induced.
I’ll close with a response from my friend Melanie because I think it sums it up nicely. In response to me telling her about my 200+ emails, she said:
“I wish I had a magic spell to keep the email fairies away! Just keep swimming, friend.”
So there you have it. Just keep swimming.
Big hugs,
