Better Workload Management = Same Hours, Less Stress

(Overworked? Overwhelmed? Learn tips to manage your workload.)

By Karen Porter

Publisher/Editor, The Effective Admin

You want to do a good job at work and excel in your career. But it seems that you're always one step behind your workload. And you can't even begin to think of ways to excel in your career because you're just too busy with day-to-day tasks on the job. How can you talk to your boss about professional development and career path direction when he's busy asking you the status on a project he needs at the end of the day (or yesterday)?

It's a fact these days that administrative professionals are being asked to support multiple managers and sometimes their manager's staff. And if that's not enough, some administrative professionals carry an extra load too. For instance, consider the admin who must fill in for an absent co-worker on sick leave or vacation leave.

Or how about the admin who fills in for a nonexistent co-worker; that's when your company hasn't hired enough staff to manage the existing daily demands at work and instead hands a bigger workload off to you (tasks that may not even be directly relevant to your position). So you juggle your workload to compensate for this staff shortage.

What can you do? The workload isn't diminishing. And your boss is asking you when you'll have this done. And this. And that. And, 'oh yea, can you do this too today when you're done with that.'

The solution? While you might like to scream 'can't you see I'm busy', 'just leave me alone today,' or 'I only have two hands today, just like yesterday and tomorrow,' those aren't professional options. You can think those phrases. But don't say them aloud.

Instead, take some advice from Erin O'Hara Meyer, president of Administrative Excellence, Inc., (www.adminexcellence.com). Prior to her position as an international trainer and consultant specializing in personal and professional development techniques for administrative professionals, Meyer worked in your shoes.
 

And now she sees and advises many administrative professionals (and their bosses) regarding these same workload dilemmas. Here are just a few of her suggestions for better managing your workload....

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