When You're Juggling Too Much

We've all had periods like this- everything that needs to be done yesterday just keeps piling up and up, demanding your time and your energy and focus, and you only wish you could clone yourself to get it all done in time.

Especially when it so happens that you must juggle two jobs- the day job and the art job- you might feel a little stretched too thin.

This is dangerous if it happens for a prolonged period of time. It is an almost certain way to get burnt out and feel unable to be creative or able to work on anything else.

On the other hand, it's easier said than done sometimes to just 'take it easy' or 'take some time off' or 'shake it up a little'. Sometimes you just have to do it all. So what then?

Seeing as I'm going through one of those periods, I thought I'd share my brainstorming on how to handle something like this without getting burnt out.

1. Choose your battles

Sometimes, you not only can't, you shouldn't try to get everything to be perfect. Sometimes, it has to be only good enough. That isn't to say that you should compromise by producing mediocre work. Just that you should work with the goal in mind being that your work (including your art) should just make the cut (whatever that means for you), not go above and beyond. You can always go back when you're less stressed to yield to your perfectionism.

2. Prioritize your tasks strategically

Estimate based on your previous experience which types of tasks you can only do when you are rested and which ones you can do even when you are exhausted at the end of the day. Always do the tasks you won't be able to do when you're tired first, even if they are relatively less important (but necessary). Then stack accordingly. That way, one task won't knock you out of the work day.

3. Rely on those you can rely on

If you can push back some deadlines, do it. Rely on the people who trust you enough to wait for you. If you want, add extra rewards for that trust and the waiting time, knowing you will give those rewards when the highly stressful period has passed.

4. Don't do it for a prolonged period of time (if you can)

All these are band aids. They will not help if you keep on working under such high demands and stress for too long. In the end even if you aren't burnt out, exhaustion will catch up with you. So try as best you can to relieve yourself of the stress as quickly as possible.

How do you deal with juggling too many tasks at once?

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