Adeel 0:09
Hello, everyone, thank you for tuning in to another episode of calm Talks. My name is Adeel, and I'm here alongside my co host, Ant, we are here to help you lead a life of peace and progression, one calm talk at a time.
Ant 0:20
Before we get started, I just want to say a normal thanks to all our listeners, we've been growing again, as normal. And we're just grateful for all the support. Thank you very much.
Adeel 0:29
Yeah, I just want to echo that as well. You know, we haven't even done a lot of marketing to be honest with you over the past few months. That means that it's really word of mouth. So you know, you've been sharing the podcast with your friends and family. And we just really appreciate that. So thank you. Now let's jump into today's episode. Now, if you're someone who's feeling the stress at your work, because there's a lot going on, there might be additional work that you've picked up, there might be some layoffs that have happened at your company. And you're just feeling the intensity at your work just increased drastically over the past few weeks and months. If that's the case for you, you definitely want to stick around for today's episode, because we're going to be breaking down some different tips on how you can manage this workload during this time period with the workload is basically increased. I also want to say that if you're someone who's still kind of stressed about layoffs, and kind of how to navigate that economy, I would say do actually that you could check out Episode 22, where he talks about how you can adapt to change and how to thrive in a recession. So if you haven't checked that out, and that's where your stress is, I would say, yes, you started with it and come back to this episode after.
Ant 1:37
Yeah, I'll just add on to that. So this is really as a follow up in a way is sort of a part two, because what we've seen is that a lot of people have been working and they've experienced layoffs in their company. And as a result of you being someone that wasn't laid off, you're actually finding yourself in a position where you have even more work to do, basically, teams are being squeezed to deliver the same amount, if not more. So this is really a continuation of that discussion that we had on episode 22.
Adeel 2:03
Alright, let's jump in, then, really, as I was saying, there's going to be just maybe additional pressure now if people have been laid off at your company, because what you have been allocated to what you've been assigned to strictly more work for you now. So while it's good that you've retained your job, it comes at a price. And that's what we're going to be dealing with the really the first step is that you had to change your mindset over here. In the past, maybe you're thinking about how you can thrive how you can advance your career. But right now the name of the game of survival. And you had to change your psyche a little bit about how you want to perform in your current role, let go of any ideas of perfectionism that you have, you have to let go of that, right now you just have to deliver an acceptable quality and acceptable standard, as long as it's good enough, deliver that, and you just have to do the to maintain your own balance. You know,
Ant 2:55
that's actually something that I personally struggle with quite a lot. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I like to get things done to a really high degree of competence really high degree of skill. I like making sure that I'm you know, in turn over every rock, I want to make sure how to get things done as good as possible. So for me, that's actually a really tough one. But you know, when timelines are stretched, when resources are stretched, when there's just not enough capacity to do everything, that is something that you just have to deal with, you just have to come to the realization that survival at this point is probably the thing that you need to focus on. And getting the job done to a good enough standard is where you have to land.
Adeel 3:33
Yeah, I mean, the reality is that whoever the company retained and whoever didn't fire, I mean, generally speaking, the mostly high performance, that's not always the case, of course, but generally speaking, it means that the company saw value in you where they said, Hey, we got to keep this person. So as a part of that, if you do struggle with any level of perfectionism, the problem is that that takes time. And that's really Tip Two is about, which is to understand that time is your greatest asset, you have to recognize that if you put in more time in a regular economy in a regular environment, you can afford to do that. But in the current state where maybe there's more projects being shared per person on the team, then you don't have the same luxury and Something's gotta give. And that's where you want to be more mindful about being efficient with your time.
Ant 4:25
And there's actually a good plug there to say if you are struggling with time or if you want to understand how time is your greatest asset, then refer back to episode seven, where we discussed in more detail, but a deal I will ask you, is there any like tips specifically for how to be more efficient with your time regarding, you know, crunched deadlines at work and feeling that extra stress because of you know, potential layoffs, etc, and things like that,
Adeel 4:47
you know, the actual inspiration for that, for me came from this book that I'm currently reading, which is The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. We'll share the links to the book in our show notes, but the book actually talks It's about Tim Ferriss, I should say talks about the fact that we have to be focusing our time on the most important tasks that we have. And really most tasks that we end up doing is just to fill space in our day. So we feel productive, but we're actually not being productive. So it's a fantastic book. And I'm kind of halfway through it right now. Some of the tips He gives us about bulking, some of your tasks, and one of them was quite practical in terms of, let's say, you're doing groceries, you start doing groceries, like once or twice a week, see, what can you go and do any type of grocery shopping for weeks ahead, maybe even a month ahead. So I've done that recently, where I would go and just buy stuff like weeks ahead, I want to step further as well, because he talks about automating any tasks, which you don't need to do. So I looked at where a large chunk of my time is going. And I was going into meal prepping every Sunday. So I would go buy groceries, and I would then cook my food. And that will take a little bit of time. And it will also exhaust me right, because I'm only getting two days a week that I'm off. And then one of them is kind of going into meal prepping. So I actually started using factor, which is a meal delivery service. They cook organic, non GMO, vegan food, all types of food, and they deliver to your door. And that's something that saved up not only my time in terms of grocery shopping, but also cooking, and honestly a lot of part of the cleanup as well, because a lot of it is just recyclable, and waste.
Ant 6:25
You know, it's kind of ironic, because meal prepping in itself is a time saving endeavor. But you actually take any one step further with with this meal preparation service. But in general, I think the point is, how can you save time and cooking is actually something that takes time. And you can even slim down the amount of time by doing something like a meal prep service. You mentioned, there's always something about buying things in bulk or doing things in bulk. And I might sound like a really silly thing to suggest. But even like using non perishable foods, like little more, say beans, or legumes in your food, these things you can like, bulk up like things like rice, to have more of a sustenance in your food. So things like that, it's more things like that can actually go quite a long way when you're, you know, literally counting hours and minutes in your days. And also, when it comes to saving time, as a result of the pandemic, a lot of us do still work from home. So if you're really struggling for time, you might have to go into the office less. So you can spend more time actually focusing on your work, basically less time commuting. Now know that might be a good piece of time for a lot of people, they might do a lot of reading at that time, they might listen to this podcast at that time. But ultimately, if your deadlines are stretched, you need to squeeze as much as you can out of your day and potentially work in your home could be another solution.
Adeel 7:39
You know, that's a big one. Because by saving the time the commute that it takes, it's actually a big chunk. Because if I wake up in the morning, I also have to sort of dress for my job and then go and work in the office. And the commute could be anywhere between 30 minutes for some people that commutes even longer. I know this also may not apply to everyone. So for some of you, if you have the luxury where you can work from home, you can work remotely, definitely take that opportunity. And see how you can allocate that time elsewhere.
Ant 8:09
A note to kind of go off on that point that you just mentioned, when you're actually at work. How do you make that more efficient? I don't know about for you. But for me, loads of fucking pointless meetings, growing my calendar all the time too many meetings about meetings. Oh, just in all honesty, if you can cut out meetings that you don't have a direct engagement with direct output for cut them, you don't need them, if you're trying to save them hours or minutes, cut meetings, you're just not contributing in. And the other thing you can do is learn to delegate your work. If there's anybody that you can leverage, leverage that because you need to spread the work. So you have more bandwidth.
Adeel 8:51
I think what that really translates to is like figure out in your current day, what you're spending time on, and what's really important. And that's what kind of leads us to tip number three, which is for you to focus on what your priorities are for you to focus on what's really important to you. During this time, a lot of people actually run into issues with their spouse, with their partners who their their families and friends. Make sure that you're not letting the stress out of work, come back home with you. And you have to find that separation for yourself. And some of the tips earlier will help you get there. But also you have to be making sure that you know what your priorities are.
Ant 9:30
I agree this is a mindset thing is for you to know that irrespective of what's going on inside of work or maybe in other parts of your life in general. There are some things that are really true to you your core values or your core priorities, like friends like family, like your health, like your fitness like your self care routine, things like that, and they shouldn't be compromised. Even if your time is really crunched with say increased deadlines or increased work stress.
Adeel 9:55
Family comes first and it should come first regardless of the little workflow. What is increased? Right? That's that's should be something that's uncompromising. Yeah, I completely agree. Right. So, and I know that, you know, there's different ways that you can implement this strategy as well. And I know that you like to work out in the morning, right? I'm not a morning person at all, I wake up at like, 8am 8:30am. So I actually make sure that I am stopping my work around seven 8pm. And I'm going to go to the gym, I'll make up for the next day, I wouldn't I'm fine. Working on the weekend, as long as I'm sticking to my gym routine, like you said, that you have to be able to make sure that you are prioritizing your family, your health, the things that really matter. And that should not be something about John,
Ant 10:38
is there anything else that you, you know, would just not compromise on irrespective of how tight your deadlines are?
Adeel 10:44
That's a good question. I think one of them is also just finding time to for my friends as well. I think that, unfortunately, we put such an emphasis on on our jobs, because it does obviously provide us an income and ultimately, you know, it's what keeps us alive. But to also make sure that I'm making time for my friends. So for example, like two weeks ago, one of my friend hit me up. And he had just moved to the city to New York. And I made sure that we grew up, we went and grabbed dinner, like within the first week, you know, even though there was a lot going on at work. I had an early 9am meeting the next morning. But I made sure that I still met up with him. I went and had dinner with him, we caught up and we had a fantastic time. So I think that's one of the things that I always focus on is of course, your family first, but also my friends are really important to me.
Ant 11:33
Yeah, agreed. I think the other thing that is important is self care, or your self care routine. I did just briefly mention it. But just general things of making sure that you take care of your hygiene that you take care of your home that your house proud that you clean it, making sure that you you know, as a man have time to trim your beard and scruffy right, we don't want that. Or you need you need these things. They make you feel good now ultimately will have an effect on you and your productivity and how good you are at delivering whatever is tasking you to get done.
Adeel 12:02
You know what's funny there actually, this past week, I haven't gotten a chance to like trim my beard at all. And it had really grown and I trimmed like I think it was I think I just trimmed like last night basically, once I got out of the shower, I was like, damn, I look like a few years younger. It's a nice feeling. Are you kidding? cheeky bastard. But it's true. Look, there's some basic things that you want to be mindful of right? Like your hygiene, your your beard, etc, for you know, for anyone else might be their nails, whatever that is your health your family, get your priority state. But Tip number four is actually for you to also recognize that this is a tough period. So you should live a little, you're working really hard over here. And you want to give yourself some grace so that you can indulge a little bit. If you've had a really rough day. Generally, maybe we our advice is not to have a drink on a weekday, but maybe have a glass of wine, maybe not the bottle. But you know, in moderation, it's fine to indulge maybe or the dessert that you want, go have a nice meal have a nice dinner, something that I particularly do is that I'll go get a massage. I have one book for Tuesday. And it's something that is my self care routine. But in addition, it's also a way for me to indulge and take care of myself outside of my regular day to day.
Ant 13:21
Yeah, I think the point here is that you need to live a little because you've worked a lot. You deserve it. And it might be the little things here or there. But they do add up to helping you refresh yourself. For me. I always have the small things like I'll be honest. I like just watching the football or in the US Soccer. Soccer. Yeah. I just like watching football. You know what, I don't want to watch it all day, whatever. But I'm gonna spend them two hours and just, you just make me relaxed in my mind. I also like going into the sauna, steam room. That's a good one. Yeah, it just, it just feels good. It helps me my breathing. And also you can't use any tech in there. Alright, well, maybe if you want it to waterproof your phone or something you could I'm not doing that. But I'm just going into the sauna in the steam room without any tech. And for me, that's just so therapeutic.
Adeel 14:10
We just shared a few suggestions of how we may be indulged and look after ourselves beyond just our day to day, I would encourage you to do the same for any other women listening maybe go get a manicure, maybe go get a pedicure, you know, get a blow dry. You can tell that I grew up with sisters, right? And I know all these things. Yeah. But whatever it is that you want to feel good to feel better about yourself. Because right now, here's the reality that right now, it's a stressful period, and it's probably going to last a little bit longer as well. So the sooner you accept that, the better and the sooner you adapt to that even better. So part of that is for you to manage your workload by also being easy on yourself. Okay,
Ant 14:52
so to wrap up, we've gone through four tips that will help you manage your workload in terms of increased pressure. We're number one is understanding that Right now, the name of the game is survival, you know that you might have to compromise on quality to get something done. It may not fit with you and your values and who you are. But that's the reality if you haven't increased workload. Number two, understand that time is your greatest asset. You need to be as efficient as possible with the time you have, and little tweaks here or there, like maybe meal prepping. Or in a dealer's case, having a meal delivery service can really go a long way, leveraging your colleagues to delegate work, and to skip useless meetings. These things can really help you increase your efficiency. And tip number three is that no matter what happens, don't forget your priorities, your friends, your family, your health. These will need to always be that irrespective of how much stress you're under, and number four, is to understand that you need to live a little because you have worked a lot and you deserve it. You're not saying to indulge all the time. 24/7 but definitely have that moment to yourself because you have earned it and no matter what you do, remember, stay calm.
Adeel 16:13
Thank you for listening to another episode of calm talks. And just as a reminder, if you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.
Ant 16:20
You can also find us on Instagram at calm talks and join our mailing list by visiting our website at calmtalks.com
Adeel 16:26
And as always, stay calm.