Prioritize Work to Avoid Burnout

Photo by Emma Matthews Digital Content Production on Unsplash

When I started working my first real job after college, I still treated it like school. I took on as much as work as I could to impress my boss. But eventually I reached a point where I reached my limit. Here's the thing though - even after I reached my limit there was still more work to do. In school there are a finite amount of assignments and tests that you need to get through. In work there is always more to do. Finishing some projects at work will result in creating more work.

How does that lead to burnout? It's important to come to terms with the fact that there will always be more work to do. That can seem intimidating, but in some ways its also freeing. The fact that there is always more work to do means you can come up with your own limits on how much work is "enough".

One of my life principles is "No Zero Days". That means every day I do at least one thing to move forward. One thing may not seem like enough, but when you start playing that game it's hard to know when to stop. Is two things enough? Three things? There is always more work to do which means you can always keep adding to that list.

The beauty of focusing on one thing is that it forces you to prioritize. If you only have time to do one thing today, what's the one thing that will push you forward the most? Answering that question is the key to progress. If you try to do five things every day, you might end just doing the five easiest tasks on your list. The easiest tasks are rarely the ones that will help you the most. By focusing on just one thing you are more likely to pick the task that will help you the most.

What's your strategy for prioritizing work? Email me to let me know.