HOW TO AVOID OVERCOMMITMENT

As human beings, many of us have an inherent ability to always want to offer our assistance to help others when life gets challenging.

Offering our assistance is not only a way of getting the job done quicker but easing someone else’s pressure brings a certain level of satisfaction.

Furthermore, the well-known lifestyle and entertainment publication Forbes links this action to how people navigate through their duties in the workplace.

“At its core, this has to do with you feeling like you’re ‘enough’ — like the work you’re doing matters, like people are recognizing your hard work and rewarding you for it.

“This is a trap that a lot of us get sucked into. And we think that in order to get out of it, we just need to commit to more.”

However, many fail to realise that over-commitment is not always a healthy thing.

Awanish Kumar – founder and director at Digital Dadi – explains that overcommitting can lead to burnout for both you and your team resulting in missed opportunities and deadlines.

“When you take on too many projects or clients, it can lead to burnout for you and your team. This can manifest in decreased productivity, a drop in the quality of work, and even a higher turnover rate for employees.”

Here is the solution on how to stop over committing according to Forbes:

Reassess what is doable now and renegotiate

While certain tasks may pop up at the spur of the moment, it is important that you consider the time frame at which a specific task needs to be completed and check whether you have the capacity. If it seems impossible, simply saying now would save you a lot of time, while you pay attention to what can be done immediately.

Pay attention to the signs telling you to slow down:

Forbes explains that just before your body reaches the stage of burnout, there is usually a reaction signalling that you are overworked or committing too much. For many this can be falling ill, depressed, or simply being low on energy or demotivated.

This is a sign that you should slow down. “It’s not about making a hard stop, but rather easing into a more sustainable pace.”

Gain clarity:

The above-mentioned source explains that one of the best ways to gain clarity is by asking yourself the following questions.

“How much will my involvement in this activity support our business goals? How will it support our team goals? And how much will it support my personal goals?”

This will help you identify how much of the time is needed as well as when you need to commit.

Much Love,

Shai_Quan