The remedy for overwhelm is 'solocution'

I have conducted literally thousands of coaching consultations with business professionals and executives over 30 years. You might imagine that I have been party to a wide range of challenges. But in medicine it is sometimes said ‘common things occur commonly’. And in a coaching setting, one of those common things is ‘overwhelm’.

A typical picture is someone who complains that they feel like they have too much to do in too little time. A common feature is a to-do list that never really seems to get much shorter. Many people complain that they get to the end of the working day with this list essentially untouched. As a result, the ‘real work’ often happens late in the day (often after dinner).

The reasons for this can be varied and complex. But, again, common things occur commonly, and a key factor here is ‘reactivity’.

By this I mean that many of us have our schedule largely dictated by what is being demanded of us, things like email asks, instant messaging, meeting invitations, or requests for catch-ups and calls. Making ourselves available for all this, on top of what might already be a full schedule of commitments (usually meetings), makes it virtually impossible to make an appreciable dent in the tasks that need dealing with. All the above constitutes ‘work’, the problem is no actual work is getting done.

A practical solution is to carve out time in the day for solo task execution – what I call ‘solocution’. Everyone’s needs are a bit different, but I’ve found that about two hours a day is what it takes to get through the essentials so that they don’t have to be done, ahem, after dinner.

Right now, it might be that your schedule has no room for this time. But even the busiest people can usually find room in their diary that they can ring-fence for themselves if they look out far enough (typically about 3 weeks).

Scheduling time for solocution has a number of benefits, including:

1. A CLEARER MIND

There’s a tendency for the mind to remind us of things we haven’t done. One way to stop these thoughts is to do them. Another way, though, is to plan and schedule when they will be done.

2. LESS DELAY AND PROCRASTINATION

By scheduling tasks, they are less likely to be pushed off into the future. Basically, things get done in a timelier fashion.

3. LESS 'BLOAT'

According to ‘Parkinson’s Law’, tasks expand to the time allowed for them. So, not allowing much time for them by putting them in a defined time box means tasks are handled more efficiently.

4. GREATER PRODUCTIVITY DURING THE DAY

This reduces the ‘need’ for tasks to be done late into the day or evening.

However, for this to work, this solitary time needs to be protected. Many people I talk to, by their own admission, give up this time too readily.

I don’t work inside a corporate environment myself, but I’ve been working with corporates for 30 years, and I do believe I have a sense of the potential pressures. If there is a genuine need for speed and responsiveness, then of course this should take precedence. People need to judge this for themselves. However, as a general rule, what usually works is this: if the issue is coming from outside the organisation (i.e. from a customer or client), it should probably be prioritised, whereas if the request is internal, it can usually be scheduled for another time. For most people, most requests are internal.

Some people – particularly those with people-pleasing tendencies – can struggle with saying no. A way of reframing this to make it more palatable is that it’s not really ‘no’, but more ‘not now’. All we’re doing is not letting the request invade our time for getting things done. I sometimes encourage people to give themselves the respect they would give someone else. It’s generally rare for someone to send their apologies for a meeting that is soon to happen. And yet, many people do this when the ‘meeting’ is with some essential tasks for the day.

If I were to summarise, the advice is to be a bit less reactive and more proactive about how you spend your time.

Being more strategic, even for a relatively small portion of the day, often pays huge dividends in terms of reducing overwhelm and boosting productivity. As a nice bonus, many people find the evenings more relaxing, and some find themselves able to get to sleep an hour earlier, too. The compounding benefits of this cannot be overstated.