This article is written by Rell DeShaw, Government of Canada.

  • The problem: You are drowning in work and don’t have enough team members to get it all done.
  • Why it matters: Your strong work ethic isn’t enough to help when you just have too much to do. You need some deliberate strategies for a re-set.
  • The solution: The next step in the process is to know who and when to ask for help and research productivity tools to help make life easier.

The first two articles in this series touched on doing an analysis of your situation and assessing the need to pitch for a reset.

The next two articles are less tactical and intended to offer more general support. This piece is about asking for help and carving out time to advance your work.

Ask for help: Somebody out there may have time to help you

A recurring theme that you will hear from me again and again: when you are struggling, don’t forget that you can ask for help. It does not make you look inadequate but rather shows strong self-awareness and humility. Within our own worlds, it is hard to believe that there is capacity anywhere in the system but you won’t know until you ask. As well, incredible connections can be built from informal alliances - that person who helps you with your interviews might be a great future hire for your team. Here is a list of possible asks to prime the pump:

  • Can you ask someone to cover your meeting as a note-taker for one or two rounds while you review CVs?
  • Is there someone looking to get experience with staffing that can help you with interviews?
  • Is there someone you are mentoring that could help draft the business case against the approved template?
  • Could your HR contact shake the trees and see if you could collaborate with another team trying to hire for a similar profile so you can share the work?
  • Do you have a mentor who can help you with a perspective on the ‘span of control’ question?
  • Given that many administrative assistants are incredibly smart and efficient but some are not working to full capacity, could an assistant close to you support you with scheduling interviews or packaging meeting documents?

Ask for help: Your own development and tools

In Part 1, I mentioned the fear that so many of us have that we are not adequate for our roles and our overwork is due in part to that. Without landing on the conclusion that you are not capable, maybe you could use more support in doing your role.

Perhaps your own reflections or the feedback you have received from your boss can guide you to possible support including finding the right coach or mentor or receiving specialised training like project management training.

You might also consider if a tool could support you like Monday.com that can lighten the load for tracking or whether you could adopt a checklist or template for some of your work to streamline things.

Carve out protected time

If you need the time to write your business case or just hire staff and you just don’t have it, and you can’t ask for help because some things just cannot be delegated, what can you do?

In some extreme cases (think about the equivalent of needing to work on a large court document against an imposed deadline), I have marked the time off in my calendar and shown it as ‘working off site’ and marked my status as offline. If a chunk of time is not doable, maybe you can chip away at your need in sprints at the beginning and end of the day. I like the Pomodoro method - work for 25 minutes and rest for five. I have even started doing ‘accountability’ hours with a friend (hat tip to James Clear and Atomic Habits). We check in at the start, name the goal and check in at the end with our progress. We find ourselves sprinting against the clock on our own goals.

Read the fourth and final article in this series here.

👋 You can create a post like this one! Share your thoughts with a community of public servants. Learn more

(Image Credit: Unsplash)

Make sure to share your own thoughts with the author by leaving a comment below