How not to die when colleagues go on vacation and shift tasks to you

I have not worked in the office since 2014, but I regularly have jobs: planned and not. Therefore, in this post I will talk about how not to die if the project is large and resources are limited. Sometimes a rush job is a feature of the case and you get involved in it of your own free will. Covering a vacationer, organizing a youth forum, making a short film in a month, quickly making a corporate identity - that's all. In the short term, rush jobs are quite ok.

I have two recent life examples in which I dealt with sudden rush jobs. First: my wife and I run the social networks of the Khabarovsk restaurant, for which we made corporate identity and communication. We are working on the project together, but in April my wife went to rest and all the tasks remained entirely on me. Second, I started editing a large book that needed to be proofread in a week.

Especially for such cases, there are several proven techniques that help you not to give up positions too quickly. But energy is not eternal, remember this.

1. Make a list of the reasons why all this is needed

I will note right away. When you apply for a job, you are working not only for your own personal gain, but for the benefit of the entire company. The company has a team that has legal vacations. Work at this time does not go anywhere, and then someone has to take on a part of the load. So that this is not a surprise, it is useful to find out during the interview how the company usually copes with this: it pays extra for an additional load, gives out free milk, or hires freelancers.

If you knew what you were doing, and it so happened that you have to cover up other guys, then formulate for yourself the reasons why you need it. If you didn’t know (personally, I never thought about it in interviews), then do the same: accept as fact that this is part of your job (if it really is), and make a list of reasons. The answer to the question "Why?" - this is the meaning that gives strength and helps not to break down.

Why Instagram	Why edit a book	Why take on the work of colleagues
This is part of the job that I deliberately went to.	It's a cool challenge to take your mind off writing alone.	This is part of my agreement with the employer. When I go on vacation, someone will also do my job.
If we don’t do it, then everyone will suffer: the customer will refuse our services and go to other guys, so it’s in my interest to figure out how to cope with this.	I will mark in my portfolio a cool project for a large publishing house and earn a good fee in a week.	If you don't, then the number of publications on the site will decrease, there will be fewer ads, there will be money problems, which will affect me too.

2. Specify exactly what you need to do and how long it will take

It is important to understand how you will have to restructure your working day so as not to spend much more energy. The simplest and most intuitive solution is to sit in the office longer to get more done. But this is a bad option, because it will cut back on the recovery time it takes to work well.

Therefore, it is worth considering exactly how the volume of work will change and how to integrate it into the current day. What tasks can you perform and what you can automate or not do at all.

How to Instagram	How to edit a large book	How to deal with some of the responsibilities of colleagues
The wife will be gone for a month. During this time, I need to take pictures three times, publish posts every two days, prepare all the photos and texts.	There are 350 pages in the book, and they need to be deducted in five working days. If you put all other projects on pause and read 100 pages a day, then everything will be in time.	If before my colleagues' vacation I published three articles a week, now I need to publish five articles within two weeks. If you rely on their drafts, then I can definitely do it. If you need to increase performance, then you need to understand why (and why I did not do it before).

3. If you do not cope, renegotiate

Things can always go wrong, and that's okay. It is important to understand what to do about it. I am in favor of renegotiating more convenient conditions.

Instagram maintenance	Editing a large book	Working on colleagues' tasks
Everything here was simple and clear. It didn't take me long to get over it.	By Wednesday, I realized that I was not in time, because the rhythm of proofreading was not 100, but only 60 pages a day. I could increase the speed of work, but then the quality would suffer. So I renegotiated and took three more days, not counting the weekends. The customer was accommodating, because for him quality editing is more important than speed with a bunch of errors.	After a couple of days, I realized that I could not physically write five articles a week - the point is not in efficiency, but in the fact that one author simply cannot work for two. I renegotiated four articles a week, and paused the rest until my colleague returned.

4. Work intermittently

The longer I stick to the monitor without interruption, the more fatigue and impulsive food cravings towards the end of the day. Therefore, it is important to set up your work routine to take regular breaks and rest. This is helped by the Pomodoro technique and regular alarms.

In the study Effect of frequent interruptions of prolonged sitting on self-perceived levels of energy, mood, food cravings and cognitive function, conducted at the University of Colorado, three groups of subjects were assessed: participants from the first group worked without interruptions, from the second - they worked without interruptions. but we did exercises in the morning, and from the third, we interrupted every hour and walked on the treadmill for 5 minutes. As a result, only the subjects from the third group had a decrease in the level of mental fatigue, a decrease in impulsive cravings for food and an improvement in mood at the end of the day, compared with those who worked without breaks and did not exercise on the treadmill.

I hope everyone understands that smoking breaks and breaks with cookies are not so-so rest.

How did you work on Instagram	How I edited a big book	How did the work of colleagues
Three photo sessions in a month is not much, I have arranged the days in advance and planned in ToDo.	I have built a new routine for this project. I started working at 7 am and finished at 6 pm.	I distributed additional tasks by day: on Mondays I write drafts, on Wednesdays I typeset.
When I photographed and discussed with the customer what to focus on, I colored the pictures and wrote texts for each one. I did this for one day and with breaks between tasks.	I worked on a Pomodoro timer: 20 minutes of editing, 4 minutes - a break. During the break, I washed the dishes, did push-ups, or looked out the window.	I spoke at planning meetings how I was able to cope with the duties of a colleague, and, if necessary, corrected the planned plan.
I put all the materials in Trello so that I could get them at any time and from any device.	Every four 20-minute cycles, I took a half-hour break, during which I had a snack, drank coffee, or went to the store.	I made it a rule not to stay too long and not to take work home: if it doesn’t work, then I took on too much and it’s worth renegotiating again.
ToDo added a recurring reminder every two days.	During the day I had 4-5 such cycles - and this is 5-6 hours of concentrated work, which is a lot.

And now about the supporting stuff.

5. Rest in contrast

This means that it is important to separate work from rest and do it decisively. As soon as 18:00 comes around, I close my laptop. If I don’t rest, then I’ll be exhausted faster and no one will benefit from this: neither the customers, nor the company, nor the project.

It is important to learn how to relax, take care of yourself and do it in contrast to your work time. If I sat in front of the monitor for a long time, then I went for a walk or to the cinema, rode a bike, met with friends.

And after a working day, sometimes it is worth minimizing irritants. Do not read anything, watch movies, do not talk, plug in earplugs and wear a sleep bandage. The less information, the better. This helps to recover faster.

6. Warm up

Exercise relieves in part. Regular exercise is associated with emotional resilience to acute stress in healthy adults. With their help, brain cells improve their ability to store glycogen and share it with neighboring neurons with increased energy requirements. Therefore, warm up during breaks, in the morning, or after work. Movement is really life.

For short workouts, you can use the Sworkit and Seven apps, which have stretching or strength exercises. Or try 12 simple exercises from the father of American football, Walter Camp.

7. Water is good, stimulants are bad

A critical parameter for me is a lot of free water. If there is no water, problems begin: the head hurts, the mood spoils. Therefore, I carry a flask with me.

In the borderline state, coffee has a bad effect on me - I lose count of the drink and just sort it out. And from this I get an accelerated heart rate and dry mouth. Few useful things.

Caffeine is an antagonist of the substance adenosine. Adenosine answers Why does coffee invigorate? for transmitting information to the brain about the body's fatigue and does not allow it to overwork. Caffeine doesn't provide extra energy, but tricks the brain. In working at the limit, this exacerbates the subsequent rollback.

I am not very good at pills and nootropics, because they do not work The Mind Bending Quest for Cognitive Enhancers.

Output

Short-term rush jobs are inevitable, you can handle them, but the energy is not infinite.
Make lists of reasons why you got yourself involved.
Specify exactly what you have to do and how much.
Feel free to renegotiate if you can't. Your health and strength is your business.
Work intermittently.
Rest in contrast to work.
Warm up, drink water, drink coffee in moderation, and avoid stimulants.