Having more work than work week is a sign you're looking at your to-do's to tell you how to spend your time.
This will have you always feeling behind and trying to get caught-up.
Your work days will be full of overwhelm and stress.
And you'll spend your time reactively: putting out fires, doing the quick and easy thing, trying to do anything to get out from under the mountain of projects and deadlines and inquiries and requests and emails.
You stay late and work weekends and yet ... the pile never seems to get smaller.
And no matter what you accomplish, you never seem to feel any less stressed out or overwhelmed.
If you want to finally feel caught up on work and you really want to have your nights and weekends back, there are four simple shifts to make:
1. Set your work hours ahead of time. You can do this a few ways, the one I suggest is to pick a total number of hours you'll work this week (don't go for aspirational - pick a number that's 5 or so hours less than you're currently working now.) If you have no idea how many hours you're even working, this is a great way to find out. Make your best guess.
2. Stay aware. You're going to want to track your hours so you don't get to Thursday and realized you've already hit your 45 hour goal.
3. Set clear priorities. This is going to help you sort out what needs to be done by you this week and what needs to be delegated, postponed or cancelled all together. Communicate any changes that need to be made (canceling, saying 'no,' asking for help, asking for a postponement, etc.)
4. Write down any excuses you have for staying late, working more hours than you said, not delegating, not sticking to your priorities, not asking for help, and not saying 'no.' These are the REAL reasons why you aren't sticking with your work hours, saying 'yes' when you wish you could say no, why you're procrastinating on the important stuff, and why you keep having more on your plate than you can comfortably handle.
The more "real" they seem - the more they should be investigated and questioned. If you'd like help digging into these reasons so you can clearly see how they're impacting how you're spending your time - AND (most importantly), how to change them, you can schedule a consult here.