Peak Season, Steady Mind: A 4-Step Ramp-Up Method
It's that time of year again when work starts to ramp up.
During the summer months, we took a step back, enjoyed the sun's rays, took time off, and slowed our productivity.
Now that time is over…
New projects have begun, and your available time has diminished. You can sense the overwhelm beginning to build, with seemingly no way out.
This is normal for the fall months, but how do we fight back the overwhelm and burnout?
It's not that it's actually too much work. Most of the time, the consuming feeling associated with your work is due to open loops, unclear boundaries, and time that expands more than necessary.
A system built to organize your work is the answer.
The Ramp-Up Method (4-Steps)
Clarify What Matters
Time Block the Work
Checkpoints
Protect the Operator
Clarify What Matters
To prevent overwhelm, you need to understand what truly needs to get done. What are the most critical targets for the next 6 to 8 weeks? Write them down and tie each to an outcome metric, and define what "done" means for each. This may tie directly to the outcome metric, or it may not.
As someone who works in IT, I often see the outcome as "are the end users happy" with a change. That doesn't always correlate with what is considered complete. On a recent project, I needed to migrate 70 users from Windows 10 machines that are going end of life, to Windows 11 machines. Most are happier with the change, but several didn't want to change at all.
My outcome metric about end users being happy would never reach 100% due to those few. Regardless of their feelings, what is considered "done" is actually tied to all of them being moved to the new systems, unlinked to the happiness metric.
What mattered in this case was achieving the necessary security compliance when the old systems reached the end of their life, while still ensuring that end users could complete all their duties unhindered.
Time Block the Work
Scheduled time blocks will help you focus on specific tasks in the set timeframes. When you give a purpose to your time, it creates the mental link to do that work, thus building a better environment for you to accomplish it.
Open loops are the cause of mental stress and forgetfulness.
These are the incomplete items on our tasks list that we didn't record or document somewhere outside of our brains. Add these to your schedule with their own time blocks. These reminders will greatly reduce that mental weight.
How we manage our time blocking is essential.
Many of us might start with simple items and then move on to more complicated ones later.
In my experience, this is the opposite approach we need to take.
Mornings are the best time for your most creative and thought-intensive work for most people. That means put your deep work sessions in the morning. It's when your brain is most effective for creativity and thinking tasks, allowing for more productivity on those challenging projects. Then, put the more administrative-type work later in the day.
Use "shrink-to-fit" blocks to create deep focus sessions on those essential items. This is the idea to use Parkinson's Law to your advantage.
What is Parkinson's Law?
It's the principle that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Essentially, tasks often take longer than necessary, not because they inherently require the time or are overly complex, but because we tend to adjust our pace and effort to match the time allocated to them. This leads to inefficiencies and procrastination.
Schedule time for each project or task to be 25% shorter than you initially estimate.
When I create time blocks, I purposely reduce the amount of time I think I need to complete them by at least 25%, and I keep those blocks to no more than an hour per session. This allows for a short break between sessions. I call this the "Ritual Reset", the time I use to clear my mind for the next block of work. You can return to the same task or project for the next block; the point is to give your mind a break from that intense focus.
Limit the number of deep work sessions you have daily.
When you are focused on the most thought-provoking tasks, limit them to a maximum of 2 or 3 sessions a day. Your brain can handle more than 3 a day, but only for a short time before experiencing burnout.
In the earlier project I referenced, the most thought-provoking tasks involved the actual move of each user. I needed to work with them over the phone via remote sessions to set them up for the transition to the new Windows 11 systems. Many of the employees worked from home using their personal devices, which created a diverse mix of environments that I needed to troubleshoot to connect them to the new VPN software and the new machines. Each case was unique in its own way, requiring careful thought and understanding in every situation.
This caused me to limit the number of users I would move per day to a maximum of two. Anything above that created more stress and frustration, and limited my ability to work on other projects that required just as much, if not more, critical thinking.
Time blocks are not limited to your deep work sessions; use them to schedule other parts of your day as well. This includes checking email, breaks, and other minor tasks.
One more note…
Don't overschedule your day. Most of your work can be completed within 4 to 6 hours each day. After that, you can add your lunch and breaks, which brings your total to 7 to 8 hours. Over-scheduling will lead to burnout.
Checkpoints
Replace the idea of "work until it's done" with checkpoints.
This doesn't mean not to get the work done. It's about avoiding working so much that it causes us to feel overwhelmed and burned out. We often fall into cycles of work, work, work, burnout, work, work, and then finally, done.
Set up regular checkpoints to review the progress of projects and tasks. Reflect on what was done, how it was done, and if any improvements can be made. This provides the opportunity to update any necessary documentation.
Think of these not just as checkpoints; they are also a good opportunity for reflection and replanning.
It's suggested to have two checkpoints a week. Assuming a typical Monday through Friday work week. Tuesdays and Fridays are the best days for these checkpoints.
Using Tuesday as the first checkpoint helps avoid front-loading your Monday. It also gives you the time to use Monday to work on any follow-up items from the previous week. Tuesday is also early enough in the week that you can plan the rest of the week to reassess your approach on any items that are stuck.
Fridays are perfect for a weekly check-in. You can review your progress, and if you're falling behind, you can investigate what may have caused the issue and refocus on a solution to get back on schedule. It's also a great time to plan for the coming week, think about how you'll approach different tasks, rethink any new stuck items, and set new time blocks.
These checkpoints must be used for current status reviews and to make sure your entry and exit criteria are correctly mapped.
My project to migrate the users to Windows 11 is a perfect example of how checkpoints helped me stay on track. I was able to review the minor setbacks that occurred during the migration sessions for each user and found solutions to help improve the process and speed up each move. I created new and improved documentation to help ease the transition. When we started to fall behind on the required schedule, I was able to identify the issue in time to get us back on track.
The checkpoints were an integral part of helping me complete the project on time.
Protect The Operator
You are the operator.
You should maintain a sustainable pace to preserve your effectiveness. This is your top priority. If you can't function, then nothing gets done.
There are two non-negotiables:
Breaks
Lunch
Remember where I discussed taking breaks after full-hour-long blocks and the "Reset Ritual"?
This is where these come in.
You must schedule mandatory break and lunch times between deep work and other lever-moving sessions. We often consider breaks to be optional, but now is not the time to ignore these rest periods. A 15-minute break can yield more productivity and progress on a project than working through it without a break.
Lunch brings an extended mid-day break. Avoid working through lunch during these periods of significant ramp-up. It might seem beneficial to take that 30 minutes to an hour to try to get ahead, but you're only asking to bring burnout more quickly. You don't even need to eat if you don't want to; go for a walk instead, clear your mind, or do anything to take your mind off work.
Sometimes an unplanned break is needed.
Suppose you find yourself just spinning your wheels and making no progress. Take a short 10- to 15-minute walk. Stepping away and letting your mind drift from the project or task will bring a fresh perspective when you return.
I have often fallen into these traps of skipping breaks and lunches to get a little more work done. This caused me to learn the hard way about how quickly burnout can come and disrupt all productivity.
My days now have scheduled breaks and lunch, and I allow myself the small unplanned breaks when needed.
Consider using this 4-Step Ramp-Up Method when times start to feel overwhelming. Avoid the burnout that comes from being overworked.
Do you have a method to help you avoid burnout? Let me know in the comments.
