4 practical tips to be productive at work without overthinking

No matter what your exact job title or work responsibilities are, productivity, speed and accuracy are often at least greatly appreciated or necessary. As an overthinker, it can be difficult to prevent your thoughts from getting in the way of doing your job.

Maybe you spend half your work day pondering that one mistake you made, or if you said the right thing during one of your meetings. Maybe you are deathly afraid of making mistakes so you work slower than your colleagues, or you procrastinate all difficult tasks.

In this blog article, I will give you four practical tips on how to prevent your overthinking from getting in the way of being productive at work.

Tip 1: Make a to-do list for yourself and keep track

The one thing that stresses me out the most at work, is feeling like I have an entire laundry list of work to do. You can prevent this by having an up-to-date to-do list for yourself. That way, you always know what you still have to do, the status of certain tasks and what’s already finished. Below are some practical tips for your to-do list:

Try to check and update your to-list at least daily. I always start my day by checking my to-do list, so I know what’s on the planning for that day.
Prioritize tasks. There is always work that can be put on the backlog, and certain tasks that have to be done immediately. You can work with numbered lists, making texts bold, and marking with certain colours, it’s up to you. Just be sure that it’s immediately clear what has to be done at first, and what can wait until later.
Don’t forget to write down when you’re waiting for someone else until you can finish the task! At my job, I often have to wait for feedback, acceptance or another action from a colleague until I can fully cross off a task. It can also be useful to keep track of the task while you’re waiting, so you know when it’s time to send a reminder.
Maybe it’s an open door, but always save your to-do list in the cloud. If anything happens with your computer or IT accidentally closes your user account (it has happened before), you won’t lose all your data and progress information.

Need more tips on how to prevent work stress? You can read my best advice on how to not feel overwhelmed at work.

Tip 2: Plan your work day realistically

Another tip concerning planning is that it’s important to be realistic about the amount of work you schedule for yourself. If you know you often struggle with finishing everything on time, or you feel rushed doing all your tasks in the allotted time, you should keep this in mind while planning the work day or week.

Unfortunately, figuring out how much work is “too much”, is mostly a process of trial and error. The good news is that the longer you do this, the better you become at it.

A related tip: don’t be afraid to say “no” sometimes. Ever have a colleague ask you if you would mind helping them with something, or even finishing a task they don’t have time for, while in the back of your mind, you’re already stressing about your planning? It’s fine to say “no” in those cases. What good would your help be anyway, if you’re already stressed and overwhelmed?

It’s also crucial you take enough time to unwind after the workday is done.

Tip 3: Keep communicating — don’t do everything alone!

One very important piece of advice I heard from my team lead once was that it’s important to tell others on time when you need help. It’s no use waiting until the last moment when you’re already stressed out and overwhelmed. Don’t try to fix every problem by yourself, it’s perfectly fine to ask colleagues or others for help, advice or just to vent a little.

If you, just like me, struggle with asking for help, here are some practical tips:

When you feel like you’re stuck on a problem, try to take a break from it first. Work on something else for an hour or a day, and then return to the task. Programmers use the “rubber ducky” method, which involves pretending to tell the rubber duck what you just did, what steps and what the problem exactly is. It can help to clarify the problem to yourself and sometimes leads to the solution.
If you still feel stuck after all this, don’t hesitate to ask for help. You probably won’t solve it by taking more breaks or spending another hour looking for a solution.
If you’re afraid you’ll bother your colleagues, who might also be busy, there are multiple ways you could ask for their help. You could send them an e-mail, so they can read it at a moment of their choosing (instead of prompting an instant reply when you text, Skype or PM them through Microsoft Teams, for example). You can plan an appointment on their agenda, or you can ask them in person when they have a moment to discuss your problem.
When you talk to that person about a specific task, try to begin from the start. No matter how stressed you are, you should always try to clarify the task and your problem first, and what steps you’ve already done. It’ll make it easier for your colleague to help you.

No matter what you do, remember that you shouldn’t feel afraid to ask your colleagues for help. Most people love to help others out, and it’s impossible to know the answer to everything. The worst thing you can do is spend days trying to figure something out by yourself when you could have solved the problem in fifteen minutes by asking someone else.

Tip 4: Learn from your mistakes

Overthinking your mistakes doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but it’s important to learn from them. It’s common knowledge that everyone makes mistakes and that you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you do something wrong, but it’s easier said than done. Below is my advice:

Be proud of your work. I used to hate doing presentations, but I started to detest them less (still not my favourite job) when I realized that it’s important to show off your work. Would you rather have someone else showcase what you did? I didn’t think so either. Be open and transparent when you’ve done something, especially when it’s not perfect or if you made a mistake.
Receiving feedback can be difficult, especially when you’re easily embarrassed or when you feel like the feedback is straightforward or even harsh. Try to remember that you don’t always have to explain or defend yourself. If someone points out a fault in your work, you can just say “Thank you, I’ll fix it in the next version” or something to that extent.

How do you prevent yourself from staying up all night, thinking and cringing about the one thing you did wrong? In my experience, distracting yourself doesn’t work because sooner or later, you’re forced to think about work, or something reminds you of the thing you did wrong, and you’re back to square one.

A better solution is to try to nip the overthinking in the bud. As soon as you make the mistake, acknowledge it (“I misspelt that person’s name)”, think of a solution (“I already sent the e-mail, but I’ll correct it in my next e-mail”) and accept the situation (“there’s nothing I can do about this anymore, I was in a hurry, next time I’ll copy-paste the name from their e-mail signature”).

In summary

Productivity at work is important but can be difficult when you’re also prone to overthinking. Things that might ease your mind and improve your productivity are keeping a To-do list, planning your work realistically, communicating with colleagues (especially when you need help) and finally, learning from your mistakes. Overthinking doesn’t have to limit you, just make sure to use it wisely and not let it cripple your productivity. Just remember that no matter how busy you are with work, it’s always important

Featured image photo by Kristin Hardwick on StockSnap