Five Ways to Avoid Being Overworked - Hallie Crawford

Five Ways to Avoid Being Overworked I wanted to share this great article with you from Penelope Trunk titled “Five Ways to Avoid Being Overworked”. Excerpt Take responsibility for being overworked, then change it. OK, suppose you love your work and youre happy working 15-hour days. Thats fine. Just dont complain about it. What Im saying is that if you complain about having too much work you should look in the mirror its your own fault, and you can change the situation by drawing boundaries at work. Be an adult by taking responsibility for your time, and complain only when you have a solution. Star performers dont talk about being overworked, they talk about time management. The best time managers excel at it because theyre good at figuring out what they dont have to do. The best time managers have the confidence to say, Ill still be a star even if I dont do that task. This reminds me of Gina Trapani, who edits the Lifehacker blog. Gina and three other editors put out a publication that has more readers than just about every local newspaper in this country, and many national magazines. Surely shes a very busy person. But her productivity tips belie a Zen-like balance in which she isolates the most important things and lets other things languish if need be. Want an example? In order for Gina to blog every day, she has to keep up with hundreds of other bloggers so she knows who to link to. These blogs come to her via direct feed. What does she do when shes falling behind and blog posts are piling up? She clears out her in-box and starts over. If somethings really important, she said at a panel I attended, someone will email me about it. This is great advice from someone whos succeeding in an area where most people would succumb to information overload. Clearly, the way to do good work is to know when its time to not do it. Here’s to having a career you love! Career Transition Coach