How to Manage Overloaded Workdays

Anyone else suffer from meeting overload? It’s a big deal. Simply put too many meetings means less time available for actual work, plus constantly attending meetings can be mentally draining, and often they simply are not required to accomplish the agenda items. At the same time sometimes it’s unavoidable. No matter where you are in your career, here are a few ways that I tackle this topic so that I can be my best and hold myself accountable to how my time is spent. I take 15 minutes every Friday to look at the week ahead and what is on my calendar. I follow these tips to ensure what is on the calendar should be and that I’m prepared. It ensures that I have a relevant and focused communications approach, and enables me to focus on optimizing productivity, outcomes and impact. 1. Review the meeting agenda. If there’s no agenda I send an email asking for one so you know exactly what you need to prepare for, and can ensure your time is correctly prioritized. You may discover you’re actually not the correct person to even attend. If it’s your meeting, set an agenda because accountability goes both ways. 2. Define desired outcomes. What do you want/need from the meeting to enable you to move forward? Be clear about it with participants so you can work collaboratively towards the goal in the time allotted. 3. Confirm you need the meeting. Meetings should be used for difficult or complex discussions, relationship building, and other topics that can get lost in text-based exchanges. A lot of times though we schedule meetings that we don’t actually require a meeting to accomplish the task at hand. Give ourselves and others back time and get the work done without that meeting. 4. Shorten the meeting duration. Can you cut 15 minutes off your meeting? How about 5? I cut 15 minutes off some of my recurring meetings a month ago. That’s 3 hours back in a week I now have to redirect to high impact work. While you’re at it, do you even need all those recurring meetings? It’s never too early for a calendar spring cleaning. 5. Use meetings for discussion topics, not FYIs. I save a lot of time here. We don’t need to speak to go through FYIs (!) 6. Send a pre-read. The best meetings are when we all prepare for a meaningful conversation. If the topic is a meaty one, send a pre-read so participants arrive with a common foundation on the topic and you can all jump straight into the discussion and objectives at hand. 7. Decline a meeting. There’s nothing wrong with declining. Perhaps you’re not the right person to attend, or there is already another team member participating, or you don’t have bandwidth to prepare. Whatever the reason, saying no is ok. What actions do you take to ensure the meetings on your calendar are where you should spend your time? It’s a big topic that we can all benefit from, please share your tips in the comments ⤵️ #careertips #productivity #futureofwork

3 steps to master productivity: There's a limit on what you can do in a single day. At least competently. Throughout my career as a lawyer I've noticed a clear correlation. The more I try to do in a shorter period of time, the more the quality of my work product suffers. Small mistakes emerge. The polish on my final product loses its shine and becomes smudged. Here's what to do instead: 1. Used focused blocks. Limit your work to 2 or 3 hour blocks on a single task. This practice stops your brain from wasting energy on constant task transitions. Each switch incurs a cognitive penalty, and you have to reboot your brain to download the context surrounding the task. Focused blocks avoid frequent mental transitions and promote deep work. They enhance your concentration, and improve the quality of your end work product. 2. Reduce daily priorities If you can, set a maximum of 3 priorities each day. This approach prevents you from overloading your schedule and stepping into counterproductive territory. Stop saying yes to every assignment. Don't be afraid to turn away potential clients. With fewer priorities, your focus sharpens, and you give each task the attention it deserves. 3. Segment your day Dedicate specific parts of your day to distinct activities, often called "chunking". In the context of productivity, "chunking" refers to the practice of breaking up the workday into distinct, manageable segments or chunks of time dedicated to specific tasks or types of work. For example, you can dedicate the first two hours of your workday solely to deep work, then chunking email responses and meetings into later, more fragmented parts of the day. Try just one of these strategies and see what kind of difference it makes with your productivity and quality of your work. Follow me, James Kamanski, for more insights on personal growth! ♻ if you found value 🙏

✅ Here’s something that helps me prioritize my mental health and be more productive during my workday. 🔍 What I do: - Schedule focus blocks the first and last hour of my day. - Inform my team that I’d prefer not to meet or be contacted then. - Use the first hour to set my priorities for the day and start working on my most important task. - Use the last hour to track the current status of in-progress tasks and reflect on my day. The result? I’m not as rushed or stressed out during the day. These quiet moments at the beginning and end of my workday help me avoid burnout. And I actually get more work done this way. 📌 Try this if you want to boost your productivity and mental wellness.

Are you tired of feeling like a hamster on a wheel, constantly running but never getting ahead? After over 30 years in firms, I've learned and seen first hand that effective time management is the key to taking control of your workday and reaching peak performance. So, here I am, sharing my no-nonsense strategies to maximize productivity: Prioritize like a Boss: Take charge of your day by identifying your top priorities. Cut through the noise and focus on the tasks that truly move the needle. Don't waste time on the trivial stuff; tackle the big wins first. Time Block: Don't let distractions derail your progress. Take control of your schedule by blocking chunks of dedicated time for specific tasks or projects. This way, you can dive deep without getting sidetracked by interruptions. Delegate or Die: Superheroes don't exist in the workplace. Learn to let go and delegate tasks that can be handled by capable team members. Save your superpowers for the work that truly demands your expertise and amplifies your impact. Crush Distractions: It's time to put an end to mindless scrolling, relentless notifications, and unnecessary meetings. Close those extra tabs, set your phone on silent, and create a fortress of focus. Your productivity will skyrocket. Make Time for Breaks: Working non-stop doesn't make you a hero; it makes you burnt out. Take regular breaks to recharge your mind and prevent creative stagnation. A quick walk, a moment to stretch, or some deep breathing can revitalize your energy and ignite your productivity. These strategies have been battle-tested and proven to maximize workdays in firms all over the world. No fluff, no gimmicks, just solid techniques that allow you to dominate your schedule and achieve your goals. It's time to take charge and make every minute count. How do you maximize your workday? Share your tips below! #TimeManagement #MaximizeProductivity #WorkplaceEngagement #ProfessionalDevelopment

A day in the life of a product marketer could be a total chaotic mess. You could be: 😑 Sitting in long meetings that should really be an email with a status update 😑Responding to endless Slack messages from product, customer support, sales, and every other team in between  😑 Getting pulled into 2 new projects due to “new company direction” and told you need to turn them around in 3 days 😑 Re-editing the sales deck that miraculously changed after you rolled it out last week This is unfortunately the downside of a role that has so much breadth in scope, and that sits at the intersection of so many different teams. But chaos does not have to define the role. Here are four tips you can use to take better control of your day: 1️⃣ Block 1-2 hours during your peak performance times to complete the highest-value task. For me, this is the first hour of the day before I have any meetings. 2️⃣ Respond to Slack/Email messages only during set times in the day. For me, this is during lunchtime and late afternoons. 3️⃣ Flex around the 9-5 for more strategic tasks. While time blocking is effective most of the time, I find it does not work for more creative or complex tasks that require a lot of thinking. So instead of beating myself up for “wasting my time” thinking for 2 hours during the day, I do these tasks at night, or on a Friday afternoon, when I have no pressure to reply to others or join a meeting. 4️⃣ Longer term - set up clear processes and documentation for field teams so they go from reaching out to you ad-hoc to checking out self-service solutions. For instance, in my previous role, my team set up a centralized Slack channel for all field teams to ask questions and created detailed FAQs and quick reference guides. When you have a more productive workday, you will create the mental energy for you to intentionally build your career. What has worked for you? What else would you add? #productmarketing #careergrowth #productivity #marketing #coaching

𝗧𝗼𝗼 𝗠𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺? . . . 🔷A former boss used to say jokingly when the workload became overwhelming, “We have done so much with so little for so long that we can do everything with nothing forever!”   🔷And while it was an excellent way for my boss to reduce the tension of us being “rewarded” with more work based on our team’s successes, my boss acknowledged we were stretched too thin. As a result, if additional personnel weren’t available, other remedies were necessary to prevent burnout and keep everyone sane.   👉Here are a few recommendations when faced with more work than your team or organization can realistically accomplish:   ✅First, be honest with yourself; an overloaded team won’t get everything done. But once you are honest about it and accept the reality, proactive decisions can create adaptability instead of reactivity.   ✅Second, prioritize consciously about what your team will do — and what they won’t. Seek team member input and discuss what is essential to the organization and what may not be a high priority.   ✅Third, communicate your plan with your team and up to your boss, including data, if necessary. Once agreed, hold them (and yourself) accountable. If a “good” idea or additional task arises, ask which priority it takes off the list.   ✅Fourth, look at efficiencies in shared services, delegate projects to other teams, or see if the budget can allow temporary external contractors for help, if possible.   ✅Fifth, reset expectations with stakeholders (external and internal). It is better to reset expectations upfront than to deal with angry and disappointed people when you haven’t met their expectations.   ✅Finally, request more staff. Even if it’s not in the cards right now, making the case early might put you at the top of the list when the budget allows.   👇Below are things leaders should 𝗡𝗢𝗧 do when dealing with too much work:   ❌Keep saying “Yes” to new requests – If priorities keep changing for your team members, then they will eventually lose focus on what is genuinely critical.   ❌Keep starting things – People tend to believe that the best chance for getting more work done is to get more work started. But all that work in process hampers productivity.   ❌Encourage unofficial channels and hidden work – The more the organization is in overcapacity, the more unofficial channels are used, until eventually, the unofficial channels are where all the work goes. And it is hidden.   ❌Introduce a new tool – Rather than look at the overall value stream and how work gets done, performance management tools usually only optimize one part of the process without changing the overall outcome.   🌟Many organizations today are struggling with more work than they have people to get the job done. Whether due to competitive pressures or increased customer demands, leaders need to balance priorities and resources efficiently or risk driving away their talent and end up in a worse predicament.

When you feel overwhelmed (in anything in life, not just work)... Stop. Take a deep breath. Begin the following steps: 🛑 Stop taking on any new items. This will give you a calm and controlled environment to complete those items that are overwhelming you. Track the balls you have in the air and stop adding new ones in. ✍ Write down everything you have to do that is making you feel overwhelmed. Identify all the balls you have in the air. 🔍 Identify ONE and only ONE item AS THE MOST IMPORTANT. Please note, that this is not the most urgent item (the ball closest to coming down), this is the item that if it is dropped will have the most negative outcome OR even better, it is the item that if completed, will have the biggest positive impact. Pick one ball that is in the air and lock on to it. You can handle the other balls later. 📰 Break that item down into as small of pieces/steps as possible. Work backward from the goal of that item and write out everything you have to do to get that item completed. Track the one ball that you have identified and do not take your eyes off of it. 🚵♂️ Put all your effort into completing that task. Ignore as much else as possible until this one item is completed and your goal is achieved. Catch the ball and throw it back up into the air. 🛑 Stop. At this point, you may be energized and encouraged to take on new tasks. DO NOT DO THIS until you have completed the next and last step. 👀 Survey the scene. Identify all of the balls you still have remaining in the air - chances are they have changed or progressed differently since you last checked on them as you were busy squeezing down your most important task. That is ok! Gather the information you need, identify which item is now the most important, and repeat the steps above. If you have no balls left in the air or they are all in a state where you can take on a new task - go for it! Did I write this mostly for myself... yes... yes I did. But I hope it helps you as well! Everything is doable, we just need to remember to stop, prioritize, break down, and execute. Happy Thursday.

"The stress of having so many bosses, so little time, and few resources is getting to me." I spent time the other day speaking with a brand new CMO and offered some advice it has taken me years to learn. It may not be suitable for everyone, but if a pearl works for you... ⏱ Put it down on paper. If you are overloaded write your long to-do list on paper or type it into a document. Get the stressors out of your mind and onto paper, and you will be better able to visualize what you have ahead of you. Once you do that, you'll be better positioned to plan your priorities and consider tasks you can delegate. ⏱ Don't look at the long to-do list every single day. Rather each day, take a few things, three to five is what I usually recommend to my clients, put those on a small note pad, and focus on accomplishing just those.  If there is time after accomplishing those, you can always go back to your longer list. ⏱ On Fridays, review your past week. Were there things that others could have helped you with? Were there projects that could be done better, more efficiently and more effectively? By looking back, you'll be able to tell and move ahead differently for next week. ⏱ If you are structuring a new group, avoid too many direct reports. It's a road to burnoutdom. The rule of seven says that you will be more productive if you can have seven or fewer. I believe that as well. ⏱ Avoid silos of information within your marketing organization and the firm. Some of the most significant stressors I see when working with law firms come when one area doesn't know what the other is doing. The friction (aka complaints) from lawyers and your own staff are generally issues that could have been mitigated by breaking down silos. By creating processes to keep workflows going and putting good communications in place, you can avoid a tremendous number of problems. ⏱ In addition to real getaways, take mini-breaks, even during the day. A walk outside or a trip down the block to grab a coffee can increase endorphins, get your brain cells moving and release some of the pressure. It will also help you think more clearly when you return to the office. ⏱ Learn to say no. One year, I spent several weekends on the phone with a particularly brilliant (yet challenging) lawyer. By the time May rolled around, I realized I was absent from three-holiday celebrations with my family. To some degree, it was my fault for not drawing the line. ⏱ Keep your brain refreshed with new ideas. Be active in industry organizations, for me that means the Legal Marketing Association - LMA International and the International Bar Association, and listen to programs and podcasts on topics you love, even if they don’t relate to your career. I hope you'll share your ideas for how those in leadership positions can achieve more while stressing out less. 

🕔 5 Productivity Tips for Product Managers (Even When You're Feeling Overwhelmed) 🕠 As a product manager, you're constantly juggling a lot of different tasks. There's always something new to learn, a new feature to launch, or a bug to fix. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unproductive. But don't worry, you're not alone. I've been there too. But I've learned a few things along the way that have helped me stay productive, even when I'm feeling swamped. 🎯 Set clear priorities. Know what you need to focus on. Take some time each day/week to review your goals and priorities. What are the most important things you need to get done? Once you know your priorities, start to plan your time accordingly. Remember 10 minutes of planning the evening before is worth a workday hour. ⚙ Use a task management tool. There are a lot of different task management tools available, so find one that works for you and stick with it. E.g. Click up, Notion, etc. 💨 Take breaks. It may seem counterintuitive, but taking breaks can actually help you be more productive. When you work for long periods of time without a break, your productivity starts to decline. So make sure to take breaks throughout the day, even if it's just for a few minutes. Try the Pomodoro timer here https://pomofocus.io/ 🤝 Delegate tasks. Don't be afraid to delegate tasks to others. This can free up your time so you can focus on the most important things. Just ask can someone else do it better and delegate. 🤖 Automate tasks. Look for ways to automate repetitive tasks, so you can save time and focus on more important things. There are a number of tools available that can help you automate tasks, such as Zapier and IFTTT. *Bonus* 💟 Take care of yourself. Make sure you're getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, and exercising regularly. When you take care of yourself, you'll have more energy and focus to be productive. Following these tips can help you improve your productivity and get more done. But remember, there's no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. What works for one person may not work for another. So experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you.   📌 P.S. What are your productivity tips for product managers?

"We're drowning in work but don't have time to think. It's a vicious cycle." Last year, I started working with a company to fix what they have been calling "cross-functional overload." During our research, we found that employees, especially those in cross-functional roles were struggling because of the sheer volume of cross-functional initiatives that are going on at any given time. It was difficult to find enough time in the day to manage meetings, getting work done, and individual and team-based projects. This is not surprising, given the complex nature of how companies operate, different work styles, and the specialization of teams and roles. Some research suggests that an increase in about 50% of cross-functional initiatives has occurred over the past few years. Having worked in cross-functional roles and on lots of cross-functional projects I’ve struggled with this because of how much I like working on teams as well as my desire to get things done. But here are a few things I’ve learned along the way to help reduce pain and enjoy the benefits of teaming with others: ✅𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 - the airline safety instruction says it best: “Put on your own mask first before assisting others” - before you can show up and win as a team, you need to set yourself up first. Spend time working on setting up your own mechanisms to collaborate with others. This is especially true if you’re leading cross functional projects, you may be on the hook to deliver, but you have to take care of yourself first. ✅𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 - While “doing” and “execution” always matters, don’t underestimate the time you need to plan or think. Creating time and space for yourself and your team to account for the mental energy that goes into achieving something is critical to success. ✅𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 - So much of the back and forth on projects comes through diverse forms of communication - being able to articulate how you communicate best, and also being mindful of how others receive information in a way that is efficient and doesn’t overwhelm people allows things to go smoothly. Being able to communicate where you are at is critical to aligning around expectations. ✅𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐬 - there’s going to be times when you need to be 100% locked in to finish off a major project, and there’s going to be times when you need to rest or slow down. Be intentional about how you expound your energy, and if you’re If you’re in a cross-functional role, or a manager helping employees navigate cross-functional complexity, I would love to hear your best practices for how you work in team-based settings while still managing time for your own work in a sustainable manner! #collaboration #waysofworking #futureofwork