Krug: Eat the Elephant One Bite at a Time

It is easy to become swamped by your workload. The rate at which business moves can be maddening to some. Finish something and then on to the next thing. There’s almost no room to exhale and enjoy a fleeting moment of satisfaction. The recession only exacerbated the problem. People were doing more with less. There’s no question in my mind that the additional load of cuts and layoffs are resulting in a growing number of workers that are dealing with issues related to anxiety. I’m no psychologist, but it reasons that not having time to feel satisfied with accomplishments of any magnitude coupled with a deluge of stuff that may only cease to continue upon your retirement could bring on feelings and/or emotions that require medication. The fact is that the work isn’t going to slow down. But to survive and thrive, you must.

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One of my all-time favorite co-workers hung a sign in his cubicle that bore the words, “How do you eat an elephant?” Beneath the rhetorical question was the answer. “One bite at a time.” Clearly, this dude was prepared to be overworked. The reminder may have become wallpaper to him over time (he often bit off more than he could chew on projects and almost always looked like he was ready to implode). However, on my random visits to his workplace, those words served as a terrific reminder to not allow myself to become overwhelmed by the amount of work that may be hanging over my head in the next day, week, month or even the next year. But not everyone handles the weight of work the same way. Not everyone tries to eat the elephant one bite at a time. For some, the elephant is ignored. They pretend that the work isn’t theirs or will magically blow into the trashcan. Take that posture and the elephant ultimately will step on you, squashing you like a grape. Others want to argue with the elephant. They want to say that the workload is unfair, or should be dispersed differently or shouldn’t have been assigned at all. I have watched enough National Geographic documentaries to know that when confronting elephants, they win the ties. The only way to truly eat the elephant, provided that it has been ethically cared for and then passed of natural causes, is to make a plan to eat the elephant.

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OK, so let’s leave the proverbial elephant eating alone for a moment and return to that giant pile of work sitting on your desk. It all must be completed. Oh, sure, some of its relevancy may expire during your work compost’s decomposition process. In that case, the one-pager that was assigned last week and later deemed unnecessary can just sit there and rot, you lucky duck. But unless you want to walk out on a Friday afternoon with your personal effects in a Dunder-Mifflin box, you must deal with the pile. It’ll never disappear on its own. Remember, it all must be done, but not all work is equal. Everything that must be done does not deadline at the same time. The CEO has not handed down every assignment that’s in that stack. And you are not personally obligated to complete every item on your to-do list by yourself. You, my friend, are tasked with ensuring that the work gets done. (Unless of course you are self-employed, are a workforce of one, and haven’t yet figured out how to outsource or insource your overflow to your spouse, which makes delegation awfully difficult).

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That stack is your stack. Begin there. Take ownership of it. Whether by design, fate or some other set of circumstances, it grew from a few sheets of paper into a ream of work. Doesn’t matter. That ream is your ream. Somehow, piece by virtual piece, you have to dig through that pile and organize it. Your method can be your own. But I’ve always found value in moving the pile to a neutral zone (and in a virtual world, that might be the equivalent of dragging emails and documents and PowerPoints and Excel workbooks into a new folder). No matter how this work is isolated, ultimately, you must review it and categorize it in a meaningful way. Start by answering these questions: • Which projects are due first? • What work will require the most time? • Who has requested this work, and how urgent is it to them? • How much of this work requires working with a team or as part of a group to complete appropriately? • How much of this work can be delegated, and what permissions might be necessary to pass this along to someone who might not have as much on his or her plate right now? It can be intimidating to slice into the pile for the purpose of determining a starting place. For many people that suffer from procrastination, the challenge for them is not the work but where to begin. Creating a hierarchy of priorities oftentimes helps to grab the elephant by the tail and make getting started easier. (As I write this, my 7-year old is telling me that actually grabbing an elephant by the tail is a really bad idea.) And, based on personal experience, it often makes the elephant seem a tad more edible. Sorry, we went back to elephants there for a moment.

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Although sorting out that hierarchy of priorities is helpful to some, the sheer amount of work that needs to be done still may cause catatonic shock. But after you have created a starting point and resolved what must be done first, how long each additional piece of work can take to be completed, what can be shared with a group and then what can be delegated, the pathway is cleared. Then the work can begin. Oftentimes the work becomes more manageable at this point simply because it has been identified and categorized. The fear of failing to complete it has passed and the anxiety has lessened. The pressure melts away, because the fear of the unknown has been removed. And you know who did it? You, my friend, have become the master of the stack. There’s still work to be done, but the pace at which it must be performed is no longer a mystery. At a steady pace, that mountain – although it never goes away – becomes a molehill.

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That mountain never becomes flat ground because there’s always more work to be done. It is here where even the best and most organized can become frustrated and disillusioned. So there’s the bad news: Try as you might, but the stack almost always grows as fast (if not faster) than you can cut it down. There are some who can be at ease with the idea that the work will simply continue to come, and those who cannot. Again, I am not a psychologist. But if the same thinking in creating the hierarchy of priorities is recreated on a daily basis, with a brief inventory of what must be completed, when and for whom, that pile will become manageable – and the elephant a heck of a lot less intimidating. Trunks up, my friends. And, as always, stay classy. Chris Krug is president of the progressive media communications firm No Limit Agency* in Chicago. No Limit is a full-service agency whose practice focuses on strategy, brand management, creative campaigns and delivering unparalleled placement in the media. No Limit Agency works with some of the best-known brands in North America, and that’s not a coincidence. Contact Krug by calling 312-526-3996 or via email at [email protected].