How to Juggle Catchup Work When You’ve Fallen Behind

Photo credit: TheeErin on Flickr

So as basically everyone on the interwebs everywhere knows (or at least, those who follow my various feeds), I went to RT14 two weeks ago.

What less people know is I’m still playing catchup. Yep.

Part of this is due to my own overly ambitious personality (like, oh yeah! Let’s start a vlog RIGHT BEFORE YOU LEAVE FOR A MAJOR CONFERENCE. Oh and let’s give away critiques! And start editing a new book!) and part of it was due to perfect (or not so perfect?) timing of other things just being due or getting sent to me right before and…well…*collapses under mountain of work*

For the record, I love the work I have to do—even the overly ambitious stuff that probably would have been better saved for after the conference. But it is work, and it did pile up and it is a lot. So.

Since I’ve been in marathon catchup mode, I thought it the perfect time to share some tips for whenever you guys have to enter the joy that is trying to catch up after falling behind.

1. Let others know about your workload/catchup status. This is important! Seriously. If you owe people something, definitely let them know if you’re going to be a little later than usual. Speaking of which, I should probably e-mail some people. *scurries off* 


2. Prioritize. You can’t do everything at once, you just can’t. Make sure you prioritize your list of catch-up work, starting with whatever is due first if you have strict deadlines. 


3. Lists. I’ve already blogged about my love of lists before, but this is another example of where lists really come in handy. Somehow, writing lists of things I need to do helps me feel a little more in control of what I’m doing, and plus it feels awesome to be able to check something off the list when I’m done. So. Win-win!
   
   It also saves me from forgetting anything. Extra win! 


4. Daily goals. Once you know everything you need to get done, try to break it up over a period of time. This way, you don’t get overwhelmed or burn out from doing too much at once. 


5. Be kind to yourself. Listen, chances are you’re not going to finish everything in the time span you wanted. Guess what? It happens. And it’s okay.
   
   At the end of the day, if you haven’t finished all of your daily goals, know that you can get more done tomorrow. Take some time to relax at the end of the day anyway and reward yourself for what you did do—you deserve it. 

What tips do you have for completing catchup work?

Twitter-sized bites:

Falling behind on your workload? @Ava_Jae shares some tips for catching up. (Click to tweet)  

What tips do you have for completing catchup work? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)