One minute, you’re just doing your job, keeping your head down—the next, you’re the person everyone goes to for their problems. Maybe your boss quit, maybe you just happen to know where all the files are but either way, you’re now accidentally important. How do you handle all that responsibility without crumbling under the pressure? Here are twelve ways to manage the extra load without losing your sanity.
Featured Image Credit: nksuttle@gmail.com /Depositphotos.com.
Create a “Check-In Later” Folder
Most people use folders to organize documents—but you’re gonna use one to organize humans as it’ll keep things a lot tidier for you. When someone gives you a task or request that doesn’t need an answer today, drop it in a folder labeled “Check-In Later” and set a weekly reminder to go through it. Doing so will stop you from saying “yes” immediately and also keep any important stuff from falling into a black hole, as you’ll have a system to keep track of everything.
Use the 1-Sentence Update Trick in Meetings
You might feel pressure to explain everything when people start expecting updates from you, although you should try to avoid doing that by preparing one sentence per topic. Write it down ahead of time because this will keep your meetings short and make you sound organized without the mental drain of summarizing on the spot. An even better result of doing so is that you’ll have fewer follow-up emails to deal with later on.
Block Off One “Fake Meeting” Per Day
Try to block out a 30-minute private meeting on your calendar each day and title it something generic like “Project Review,” but don’t use it for meetings. Instead, use it to breathe, think, or catch up—your coworkers are less likely to interrupt if your calendar looks full and it’ll give you time to just relax. Anytime that someone tries to book over it, just tell them, “Oh sorry, that one’s locked in,” and they’ll probably be happy to reschedule.
Keep a “What I Don’t Own” Note in Your Phone
As your list of tasks begins to pile up, it’s easy to forget what’s not yours and that’s why you should create a document labeled “Not My Job (Still Asked Anyway).” This way, when people try to loop you into something random, you’ll have a list ready and you could tell them, “Hey, that’s actually handled by payroll—talk to them.” It’s a polite way of rejecting their requests that’ll save you valuable hours every month.
Record a 2-Minute Video for Repeated Questions
It’s natural for people to keep asking the same question, like how to pull a report or update a spreadsheet—when that happens, record a quick screen-share answering the question. Keep the video short and upload it somewhere easy to find so that the next time someone asks, you can just share the link. Doing so will save you the time and effort of explaining again…and again and again.
Create a Personal “Outbox” List
Not everything needs a project tracker and that’s why you should keep a small list (paper or digital) of things you’re waiting on from others, which you could call your “Outbox.” Anytime that something’s been sitting there too long, you may want to speak to the right person to see what the hold-up is. Such a simple trick may seem unimportant but it’ll actually stop you from having too much mental clutter.
Use Emoji Categories in Slack or Teams
When you become an important person at work, your messages will likely explode with constant questions or tasks from other people—to stop yourself from being overwhelmed, try using custom emoji markers to organize messages. For example, you could use the siren emoji for any urgent pieces of work, an eyes emoji for something that needs to be reviewed, and an hourglass for when you’re waiting on someone. This helps you skim through the messages without reading every word, especially when everything feels important but isn’t.
Ask for Written Requests Only After 3 PM
You’ll likely get a lot of people saying things like, “Hey, quick question…” towards the end of your workday, which ties you up in things that aren’t important. To avoid this, you should start telling people after 3 PM, “Can you drop that in a message?” because most people will forget—and that’s the point. If it’s not worth writing down, it’s not urgent, meaning that rather than blowing them off, you’re filtering signal from noise.
Set a Daily “Drop It” Time
Pick a time each day, whether it’s 5:12 PM, 6:03 PM, or whatever, and whenever that time hits, you stop—that’s your “drop it” moment. That means no checking email after, no Slack, no follow-up thoughts, just you telling your brain, “That’s tomorrow-me’s problem.” It trains you to shut the switch off instead of quietly spiraling at 9 PM about things you don’t need to worry about right now.
Make a List of People You Can Say No To
Some requests have to be taken seriously and others don’t, so sit down & make a short list of coworkers you can safely say no to without causing problems. These are usually people on your level or outside your direct team and it doesn’t have to mean that you’re ignoring them. Rather, you’re just deciding ahead of time where your limits are so that when they ask for something that’ll stretch you too thin, it’s easier to say, “Sorry, I can’t help with that today.”
Create an Auto-Reply for Repeat Work During Busy Weeks
Make sure to add a temporary auto-reply to your internal messages or email that stays short and sweet, something like, “Hey, I’m working on high-priority stuff right now. If your message isn’t urgent, I’ll reply later this week.” Having an auto-reply message like this will slow down incoming requests without ghosting anyone and most people will wait or find another way. Of course, you should use this sparingly and only use it during weeks that are clearly overloaded.
Keep a Running “I Did This” Log Every Day
Start a running note somewhere and quickly write down what you actually finished that day—keep it short, with only the things that took real effort or solved a problem. This isn’t for your boss or a performance review, but rather for you, because when everything’s moving fast and you’re doing more than your title says, this helps you see the actual work you’ve handled. You’ll also be able to copy and paste from it later if someone asks what you’ve been working on.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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