Preparing for a full week
What to do when you have too much to do
The average professional spends 18 hours a week in meetings—nearly half their workweek (Harvard Business Review, 2022). No wonder Sunday night feels less like rest and more like staring down a tidal wave. The “Sunday Scaries” aren’t just a meme—they’re a physiological stress response. Cortisol spikes when we anticipate stress, priming our bodies for a fight that never comes (American Psychological Association).
I know the feeling. You glance at your calendar, see the wall of commitments ahead, and the dread sets in.
Dread
You get to Sunday night. It whispers: “You’ll never get it all done.”
That whisper grows into a lion’s roar by Monday morning.
That’s where your dread goes from fear to being overwhelmed.
Overwhelm
Soon, you’re spinning. The to-do list multiplies. Gallup reports that 44% of employees experience daily stress at work—a number that’s only climbed in recent years. It’s the hamster wheel effect: lots of motion, no progress.
Chaos
Some of us respond by sprinting through the week with our hair on fire. But as Dwight Eisenhower once said:
“What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Activity masquerades as achievement. Chaos breeds more chaos.
Control
Clarity is the first step to wrangling all of this chaos.
Greg McKeown, in Essentialism, reminds us:
“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”
Control begins with stepping back.
Take stock. Note what’s on your plate. This is the hardest part because it forces you to admit what you’re working on.
Take note. Pretend you’re a detective getting to the bottom of the chaos. Stay objective. Use AI if you need to (see my tip at the bottom of this post!)
Do only what you can do. You have unique value to offer, and it’s not solving everything on your plate.
The 3-Part Reset
Here’s a framework I use when the week feels impossible:
Delegate – Who else can own this?
Eliminate – What happens if this never gets done?
Concentrate – What only you can do (your unique value).
Tim Ferriss puts it bluntly in The 4-Hour Workweek:
“Being busy is a form of laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
A Practical Experiment
Want to try this in real time? Drop this prompt into Copilot, ChatGPT, or your AI of choice:
“You are an expert at time management, particularly following advice from Tim Ferriss. Review my calendar for the next 4 weeks. Give me advice on what meetings I can reduce by 50%, delegate to someone else, or eliminate completely. List each category and then advice on each meeting.”
If you’re working inside Microsoft, Viva Insights can surface which meetings are draining your week. As an objective observer, it reviews agendas, attendees, duration, etc. to advise you on how to buy back time.
Your Turn
This week, don’t try to fix everything. Instead:
Delegate one meeting.
Eliminate one task.
Concentrate on one priority only you can do.
Small wins compound. And the shift from dread to control starts with a single decision.
Did this resonate with you? What challenges are you having next week? Leave me a comment or subscribe so we can talk more about focus.
