4 Steps to Reduce Your Workload and Thrive as a Creative Professional Today
Overwork is one of the quickest paths to work/life imbalance and burnout.
I’ve been there—more often than I’d care to admit.
Our problematic relationship with creative work
Overwork is often held high on a pedestal.
Society cherishes work. It reasons if you’re working, you’re “valuable.”
But when we value the work over ourselves, we become numb, tired, and overwhelmed.
We need rest.
Just as our bodies need rest every night to recover from the natural amount of energy we spend in our waking hours, so do our bodies need a break from work. As creatives, that line between work and life blurs.
We're compelled to do more work because we’ve become unclear what a successful process should look like.
In many cases, we don’t have a process. The process is simply chaos.
We throw more hours at the problem.
The work starts to pile up more.
And more.
And more.
The open space we needed to create amazing work is quickly filled with more projects, deadlines, and problems to solve.
We become lost, anxious, and overwhelmed.
We want to do good work.
We also want to thrive as humans.
So how do we start to reduce the work in such a way that we are doing right by both the work and ourselves?
Step back.
How to immediately reduce the workload in 4 Steps
Step back and breathe — The first step is to disconnect yourself from the madness. When you’re in the trenches, battling for every inch of time to get the job done, there’s no room to review the situation objectively. Deadlines will always be there. The work will always be there. You need to treat the work and how you approach it as its own problem—in the same way you would a design, a story, or a contract.
Evaluate and prioritize — Now that you’ve given yourself some space to think on the issue, consider what you have on your plate. For this exercise, only consider work-related items.
What is the very next thing that must be completed?
What is something you can put off?
What is something you can delegate?
What is something you can take off entirely?
Once you have the work items identified. Do the same with things outside of work. Try to anticipate what you’ll need to tend to along the way. Birthdays, drinks with friends, hobbies, exercise, etc.
Communicate your needs — Once you’ve prioritized your work tasks, sit down with your team, your peers, or your boss and discuss it. This part is likely the most uncomfortable step because you need to be real with them. It takes vulnerability and strength at the same time. Vulnerability to say you need help. Strength to hold your ground.
Identify what you’re capable of doing within the time you have available
Stress how you either:
Need help to get the work done in the same amount of time
Need more time to do the work effectively
SideNote: This is the step in the path where you may have pushback. Remember though, there's a difference between working well and overworking because no one’s asked “Why are we doing it this way?” The workload itself is a problem that needs to be addressed in a way that supports your life and the work.
Maintain your boundaries — After you’ve negotiated what the next steps will be, don't waiver on the boundaries you've set. This may also be uncomfortable at first. But the reason it’s so is that you’ve let the work take over so many times before. It will get easier the more often you do this. It’s like getting callouses on your fingers when you practice guitar for the first time. Your body needs time to acclimate.
It’s easy for you to say… but “that won’t work for me”
You’ve taken the first steps to reduce the overwork in your life. You’ve stepped back, evaluated the work, communicated your needs, and maintained your boundaries.
But you might see these steps and be saying in your head:
“That won’t work at my job.”
“My situation is different.”
“My boss won’t understand.”
Those are all natural responses, but ones that won’t serve you.
And I get why. I used to feel the same way.
When you’re in the trenches, it feels like the only way out is through.
But the real way through is by lifting yourself up and above what’s going on.
You can’t see the situation for what it is until you see everything objectively.
If you try these steps and you’re still stressed out, it may mean that the problem isn’t your process. It’s the job itself.
Overworking yourself will lead to burnout. Hard stop.
Do whatever you can do today to reduce overwork. You’re a creative person who likely got into your profession because you loved it.
Don’t let the work become something you hate because it overwhelms you.
By taking a moment to reflect on it and talking to your team, you take some of the pressure off. You make space for the joy that made you want to create in the first place.
TL;DR
Creatives can get stuck in a bad relationship with work
Overwork happens when there are no clear parameters
Step Back
Evaluate
Communicate
Maintain Boundaries
Quote of the Week
Motivation for the days ahead of you.
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
— Lou Holtz
That's all for now.
Stay creative, my friends—and have a great week!
