This ex-colleague (J) does not like her current job. Besides being asked to wear many hats (multiple job functions and dotted-line bosses), she is not getting all the due appreciations (her version of the story) from her superiors. In short, she is unhappy and have been contemplating whether or not to quit her job.
I changed topic shortly as I did not want to goad her into quitting her job so soon. Instead, I shared with her a few tips on how to manage her workload better which I am going to share with you below. These couple of tips was taught to me many years ago and it worked well for me till today. Give it a shot if you are in a similar predicament in your career.
Important vs Urgent tasks
Which one of the above do you prioritize when you do your daily task planning? Are you handling all the urgent things first as they comes in to you? Do you let the urgent task overwrite the high priority items on your to-do-list? Or do you hold your ground and focus/prioritize mainly on Important tasks?
Let's do a comparison, shall we?
Example of Urgent Tasks:
- attending a course on 'How to Use Excel' just because it is a free coupon given to your boss and today is the last day to attend.
- help a colleague do up an invoice (not your duty) because her computer went bonkers this morning and the customer is waiting for it
Example of Important Tasks:
- preparation of agenda for CEO's meeting tomorrow morning
- finishing up that payroll excel so that everyone can get their pay in time
- applying Visa for the CEO who is leaving for Japan next week
Hence it is obvious that we Go for important tasks first. Important tasks are things that may cause you to lose your job if they are not done in a efficient and timely manner. Whereas for urgent tasks, it is really up to you to decide if it is really worth doing it immediately.
Like I mentioned, urgent tasks may not be important and it is only urgent to the person who is assigning it to you. If that person is not your immediate boss, always check with your boss first if it seriously conflict with your ability or schedule to fulfill the more important tasks on your list.
Learn to say NO
Yes, it may not be easy to say NO to your boss but it may be necessary to highlight to him or her the important things that you are current doing and let him or her decide which one you should do. If something goes horribly wrong after you do it, at least your boss will be the one to take the rap.
Learning to say NO is a skill hardly practiced by people these days as they are often fearful of losing their job if they say NO.
Well, it depends.
Saying No to a colleague who is obviously taking advantage of your kindness to help would be the right thing to do and of course, saying No to your superior will depend on what the task is about. Is it Important or Urgent or Both?
What if You Really Need to Quit?
There is really no fix time on when to quit. It is ultimately your call but before you quit, always try to have the following in place (best effort basis):
- have a few job offers (highly recommended)
- have enough saving to cover your personal expenses for the next 6 months (recommended)
- test the market to see if there are vacancies for your current job in the market
- get support from your family and friends
Quitting a job may have impact and repercussions if not handled properly. If you burn your bridge with your ex-company when you quit, it may affect your chance of landing a new job in the same industry as words tend to spread fast.
If you are really thinking of quitting your job and it is due to heavy workloads, I would strongly suggest that you try out the Important vs Urgent Tasks filtering method and see if it works for you.
If nothing else work and your boss is really an asshole, quickly land another job or save up like I recommend above and then say this to your boss:
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