Finding a way to balance your workload while not refusing work

Photo by Othman Alghanmi on Unsplash

Hi, my name is Oli, I am a designer and if you ask for my help, I will say yes, even though it means I will probably overload my Jira board.

This year, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with different teams, designers and on different products. It was an interesting experience. Would I do it again? It depends.

Being able to switch from team to team after a couple of months it’s a challenge and it’s exciting, but after a couple of times, you kind of want to have ownership over a product, to own something more than a feature, a bug, that small improvement.

How did I end up switching products so fast? Yes, I will help you. It’s my weakness or my strength. If I could I would help everyone I could, every time, but the truth is…my skills right now are not helping me multitask so many things at once.

It feels like I am undervaluing myself and my designer’s skills in front of everyone, but I have to be honest with myself and the product managers, I have to prioritize my work.

Saying no, but nicer

Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash

Lately, while I was chatting with a much wiser designer/manager and I was pouring my thoughts out about the all stuff I need to do, he gave me the best advice. Saying no will always be a stopper.

Imagine doing improv and someone asks “Andrew, did you eat all the cookies?” and Andrew says “No”. That’s the end. But, what if Andrew said “Yes, but I saved everyone, they were expired”, now everyone is laughing.

He explained to me that while saying no, it’s not a good thing to say, we can always say “yes, but…”.

Manager: Hey, Oli! I need this feature that’s really important for us, can you help us?

Oli: Yes, but I will have to wrap something up first. Can you schedule a call for us at the beginning of next week to discuss this?

I am not saying you should always say “Yes, but”, but it’s about expressing your willingness to help, but not right now.

Thank you for reading!