Education, study and knowledge

Workload: how to deal with the workload

In an increasingly competitive world, emphasis is often placed on the importance of knowing how to deal with the workload.

In this article we will see some useful tips to increase our working efficiency and know how to properly manage the workload during the day to day, and also a reflection on to what extent the solution must always go through the solutions individual.

  • Related article: "Psychology of work and organizations: a profession with a future"

Strategies to manage workload

Follow these guidelines to improve your chances of knowing how to function well in the face of day-to-day responsibilities in the work context.

1. Sleep well

It has been proven that the simple fact of sleeping less than 6 hours a day for a week and a half makes most of people have the same cognitive and concentration problems as those who haven't slept for two days. This has clear implications when it comes to work: you give up significantly less.

In addition, little sleep greatly increases the chances of developing excess anxiety.

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2. Set very specific hours

In most cases, the habit of not keeping schedules or of only keeping them "upside down" is the enemy of productivity. The best thing is to specify them almost to the last detail, to better engage with them.

3. Don't underestimate the power of breaks

Although it seems paradoxical, in most cases setting a few minutes of rest approximately every hour can make us finish before work. The reason is that allows us to concentrate better, and also offers us specific moments in which to rest, something that makes it easier for us to avoid distractions and moments in which without realizing it our mind starts to wander.

4. Adopt assertive communication habits

Sometimes we lose a lot of time due to misunderstandings. It is important to be very sure that you are doing what is necessary at all times, and this means being direct when raising any doubts that arise.

5. If you can, delegate

The point at which we can delegate responsibilities is one of the key moments from any leader who works in an organizational environment: relying on the capacity of other people has its risks, but it is often necessary to be able to cope well with the workload.

This in itself is more work, but in the medium and long term, it is appreciated.

6. Do not underestimate the importance of the workspace

Small details such as fluorescent lights that flicker a lot, uncomfortable chairs or a bad distribution of the tables can make it very uncomfortable to work in the medium term, including problems that sometimes become doctors. Therefore, to deal well with the workload, it is important design workspaces keeping in mind criteria arising from ergonomics and work psychology.

  • You may be interested in: "How to be more productive? 12 tips to perform more"

The problem of burnout syndrome

One of the keys to knowing how to correctly manage work overload is knowing how to distinguish between situations in which the strategies of planning and adopting new habits can be the solution, and those cases in which the root of the problem is simply that there is too much job.

Because beyond motivating phrases and the belief that the only thing necessary to achieve success is effort, there are psychological disorders facilitated by a precarious employment situation and that, unfortunately, is very common even in the richest countries.

That's why you have to accept the possibility that certain jobs are poorly planned, some companies can only function by exploiting workers to the point of losing their health, and companies cannot be expected to decisions that we make individually are always the key to completely solve problems that are of a collective nature, and not staff. So, to know when you have a problem Burnout syndrome that can only be solved by stopping working so much, consider these aspects of your way of working:

  • Does your work cause you an almost constant state of anxiety, for several weeks?
  • Do you notice that in your work context you usually feel fatigue?
  • Do problems concentrating lead you to perform much less than you could be performing?
  • Do you feel an emotional disconnection regarding your work?

If the answer to most of these questions is yes, it is likely that you are experiencing burnout syndrome.

If, in addition, you feel the need to sleep little to be able to meet your work goals, you hardly take time to eat well, you work so much that you cannot allow short breaks of even a quarter of an hour and you feel a significant fear of being suddenly assigned a lot of work, it is worth considering why you should keep working in those conditions, since adopting healthier habits in terms of performance and organization will not keep the job being harmful.

Don't forget that mental health is not disconnected from the material context that surrounds us, and that if the 150-page documents to fill out in a single afternoon will continue to exist even if we change our behavior, what must change is the job, not us.

In any case, psychology is relevant in both cases. On the one hand, it helps people to adopt useful strategies to manage their time and to be more resistant to anxiety and stress. stress, and on the other hand, it proposes intervention models in the way companies work, from changes in the workflow to activities to improve group cohesion and avoid the appearance of problems caused by a lack of communication and trust, for example.

Bibliographic references:

  • McVay, J.; Kane, M. (2009). Conducting the train of thought: Working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 35 (1): p. 196 - 204.
  • Ruotsalainen, JH; Verbeek, JH; Marine, A; Serra, C (7 April 2015). "Preventing occupational stress in healthcare workers". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (4): CD002892.
  • Toker, S.; Melamed, S.; Berliner, S.; Zeltser, D. & Shapira, I. (2012). Burnout and risk of coronary heart disease: A prospective study of 8838 employees. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74:pp. 840 - 847.
  • Vazquez Belendez, M. (2002). Psychology of Work and Organizations: Historical Approach. University of Alicante.
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