Written by Joseph Montemorano
Edited by Hope E. Davis
Do you find that you are worn thin? Like your plate is always full no matter how many items you check off the to-do list?
If you find yourself constantly asking if you are doing too much, then the answer is, that you probably are. It can be difficult to cut things out of your life, but with a four-step approach, you might find it easier to find balance in your life.
If you are doing too much and you don’t lower your workload, you may cause yourself to have a burnout. Read on to learn more about how to balance your life when you’re doing too much.
Am I Wearing Too Many Hats? (And How to Remove Some of Them)
I have been challenged at certain times in my life by wearing too many “hats” (tasks, duties, and responsibilities). I wish I had learned a good strategy back then to address it by identifying them, prioritizing the duties, and learning to delegate (and eliminate some) to be more efficient with my time.
I hope this advice serves you well. It helped me when I finally took a stepped approach to deal with my “hats” in life.
Wearing too many hats will “wear you down,” and when you start removing the ones you don’t need to wear, it’s liberating. Besides, “hats” are hot, and they give you a stick neck. Let’s discuss how you can toss some of them aside.
Step 1: Signs You Have Too Much Stuff on Your Plate
In order to know if you are doing too much, you must first look for the signs you have too much stuff on your plate. These could be anything from a string of incomplete tasks on your plate to never having time just for yourself. If you are constantly tired, worn-out, and stressed, you likely have too much to do.
We recommend that you start to remedy the situation by making a list of all the hats you wear (aka the tasks you have to do). This may take some time, but it is time well spent. List all of your duties in a single day or even a single week if you feel so inclined.
After you have your list, it’s time to identify the hats which are essential versus those that you can wear less or not at all. Remember, if some of your hats are causing you to miss out on healthy sleep, they may not be as essential as you think.
Here are some examples of the areas “where you wear hats” in your life you need to consider as you make your list: (ref#2)
1. Your job titles, job descriptions and duties, roles, projects, and committees
2. Your family-spouse, children, sibling family events, and aging adult parent caregiver
3. Your home duties-housekeeping, home property maintenance-lawn, repairs, upkeep, etc.
4. Your children’s school extracurricular activities, sports, clubs, homework, and projects
5. Your community-church organizations, groups, clubs, associations, etc.
6. Your other stuff-hobbies, or anything else that takes time and energy
This is just a small list of some of the areas we spend time completing tasks or duties. I am sure you could list a whole bunch more.
Step 2: What Should I Delegate?
After you have your list, it’s time to split it into two categories: Only me vs. Not only me. (ref#1)
1. Let’s first go through and check off the ones that only you can do that require your person (ie, spouse, father, job title) or that require special knowledge that someone else couldn’t do.
2. The list may be too long, so it may require you to think more in-depth to determine if it really requires you personally to complete the task. (ie, your son’s baseball game can be attended at times only by your spouse, or weekly management meetings can be handled by a reporting back staff member).
This step is difficult. But there is absolutely something in your life that you can delegate. It may be something as simple as cleaning the house or having groceries delivered rather than heading to the store each week.
Step 3: Create a Delegation Plan
Now that you know what you can delegate, it’s time to make a plan for delegation by searching for others within your job team, family, home life, or community who offer the services you are looking for.
For example, mowing your own lawn, cleaning the pool, or painting the porch may be your weekend duties, but are they ones you really want to keep on doing? When in doubt, hire it out, especially if you don’t enjoy these things.
Start asking around your job, community, or family to see if there are people willing to do yard work for you. You never know when you may be helping out a neighbor by hiring her high school son to do some tasks for you!
Certain tasks delegated to others may cost money but let’s add it up and see how you can budget it. Plus, once you free up time by delegating tasks, you may be able to increase your revenue with extra hours of income projects at work or starting a “side hustle.”
Step 4: Hand Off the Hat
So you know what you are going to delegate, and you know who you will delegate it to. It’s time to finally complete the transfer so that you will no longer have that hat to worry about.
1. Chose who will be taking over the task and ask them if they will be able to take on the duty. Make sure to have a way to monitor if the task gets done and accountability
2. If you hiring out all tasks or duties, accountability should be easy. By spreading responsibilities around, you’ll discover how much more efficient things can be when several people are getting tasks done instead of one person (you) trying to get everything done.
And now that the task is off your plate cross it off your list and take a deep breath. Doesn’t that feel great?
FAQ’s
How Do You Know If You Are Doing Too Much?
You know you are doing too much when you are constantly behind on tasks or forgetting tasks completely while also having no time for yourself. You should have time to complete everything you are doing fully without feeling intense pressure.
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How Can I Stop Doing Too Much?
The number one way to stop doing too much is by delegating tasks to other people. Especially small tasks like yard work, grocery shopping, or errands.
Reference:
Ref #1 : https://www.thegardencontinuum.com/tgc-academy-blog/too-many-hats-tips-for-lightening-your-
Ref #3 Healthy Mindset Habits: Am I wearing too many hats?
Brought to you by RxHealthyHabits
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