Work overload is a normal part of a professional’s life. A good leader can push through until they burn out, then take some time to recover only to repeat the cycle when times get tough. A great leader, however, knows how to navigate the overload, manage their time, and implement long-term solutions and strategies. That way, they can sustain their energy levels and the company’s productivity without overworking employees. This article will show you how to deal with the all-too-familiar excessive workload, not just in a way that is good for you, but for your employees, too. 

Understand Where the Time Goes

The three factors that go into workload management are time, energy, and workload. This point is mainly concerned with time. Let’s say you have the energy, but you’ve got too much work and too little time. The first solution is to use your time more efficiently and to do that, you need to understand where your time goes. Simply, time each task you do, even your breaks, and write down your findings for a week to get a full picture. It’s guaranteed that you’ll find some tasks that often take more than they should. You’ll also find yourself more productive at a certain time of day and only during certain days. For example, some people come back from their weekend energized enough and ready to take on the world. Others take a day to switch from “relaxation mode” to “work mode”. Your job now is to try and maximize your own efficiency. How can you improve your performance without affecting its quality? If you can’t function beyond a certain hour, would it help if you come in early rather than stay late? If you’re more creative in the morning, how about you reserve your mornings for creativity-demanding tasks? Etc.

Integrate Helpful Software

Now that we’ve covered the time factor, let’s move onto workload management. The more organized you are, the faster you can get work done. Not just that, but the more streamlined and contained your management operation is, the better you’ll be able to keep track of and orchestrate everything that goes on in your domain. How can you better manage your workload? According to WebFletch, an online business management software can help you keep track of your employees and your operations from any device. With internet access, you can divide your employees into teams, assign managers and tasks, then get real-time updates on the progress. 

You can also create invoices, generate quotes, and send them to your customers from the same software. Better yet, tired of make-shift customer accounts on excel sheets? You can create detailed accounts for your clients on your business manager. It’s a simple addition, but it will help you greatly when it comes to tackling a massive workload.

Learn to Delegate

Delegation is an important quality that any leader should possess for a whole lot of reasons. When it comes to navigating a heavy workload, delegation is particularly crucial because it will allow you to invest your energy in the tasks only you can handle. Meanwhile, it will also boost your employees’ morale as they see you trusting them with more tasks. Keep in mind, there is a fine difference between delegating and dumping. Delegating is assigning tasks to people and following up with them. Dumping is taking the easy route to avoid working. Delegation is also done with care and regard to each employee’s time and capabilities while dumping is only done to benefit the boss. If you are having a hard time determining which one you are doing, question your intentions, not your actions.

 That said, delegation can be quite hard for a lone wolf who is used to doing it all themselves. If you still have trouble trusting employees with work, you either need to challenge yourself into trusting or rethink your choice of employees. A company has to band together to get to the top. You can carry all the weight on your shoulder for a couple of years, but is that truly what you want?

If you effectively take on the three factors mentioned above, you’ll start seeing results in no time. You’ll find that you’re finishing more work in less time without burning your candle at both ends. Then, when you start seeing this progress on an individual level, make sure you pass it on to your employees. When an overload hits, it affects everyone in the company. Because promoting balance while demanding extra productivity never helps, it is your responsibility as a leader to help them navigate through the excessive workload.