19. What to Do When Your Job is Too Hard
Episode 19
Feeling challenged at work is actually a sign that you’re working in the right zone of ability. What does this mean? It means that the ideal jobs challenge us just a bit on most days.
But too much of a good thing is not a good thing, and that’s why in this episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I share some practical strategies about what to do when your job is too hard. After all, if we're constantly overwhelmed and feeling like we are outside our zone of ability, we’re on a fast track to professional burnout.
🎙️Other Episodes Mentioned:
→ Episode 4: What’s an Admin Block and Why You Need One
→ Episode 7: How to Learn Things
→ Episode 9: The 3 Most Important Areas to Organize
→ Episode 17: Tips for Project Management and Planning Study Spaces
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19 What to Do When Your Job is Too Hard
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The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I am choosing not to spend my time fixing them. :)
[00:00:00] If you are in the right job, there are going to be days when it just feels a little bit too hard.
They're going to be days when you feel like you don't know what you're doing and everyone else is killing it and you should just quit.
The reason I say that these are signs that you are in the right job is because the right jobs challenge us and make us feel slightly uncomfortable some of the time.
On the other hand, if every day is super easy, then you're going to get so bored so fast…
And while you might think in easy job sounds well, easy, a job that falls too far below our comfort level or our ability level requires massive amounts of discipline and motivation to do, which if you were following along here can make an easy job, really, really hard.
But easy jobs are not what we're here to talk about today because in this week's [00:01:00] episode of the Learn and Work Smarter podcast, I am going to share some strategies about what to do when your job feels too hard.
Like on most days you dread going to work, you feel confused, you feel overwhelmed and you have a general sort of nagging sense that you're just not cut out for the position.
Maybe you feel like you don't have the right skills, you don't know enough about your industry, everyone else is more tech savvy than you, things in your industry are, are changing too fast for you to keep up with, or honestly, any number of reasons that can make you feel like the work that's required of you is beyond what you're capable of doing.
Whatever the reason your job is hard, you are in the right spot.
So let's dive into the strategies so you can walk away with an action plan to start making things easier at work.
[00:02:00]
The first strategy for dealing with a hard job is to try to identify if it's a feeling or a fact.
Does your job feel hard? Or is it actually hard?
Now you might think there's no difference, but there absolutely is.
Things that feel hard -if you're just listening to this I'm using air quotes, right- are still within our zone of ability.
We might feel frustration or annoyance or even struggle a bit, but we're still able to figure it out and to do the thing.
But on the other hand, a job that is legitimately too hard is beyond our zone of ability.
No matter how resourceful we are, [00:03:00] like despite getting help and watching others and lots of practice and repetition, it's just not happening.
Or maybe you have to spend so many resources, like time and energy and effort to do that job that is honestly just not practical or sustainable.
All right. So what I'm saying here is that before we get tactical and strategic, I almost just said, strategical. Strategic about how to make our jobs less hard, we've got to figure out if it's a feeling or a fact.
If it's just a feeling- like I said, right- frustration, annoyance, maybe a little strenuous or uncomfortable at times, then the solution is probably going to be a combination of the strategies that I share today, but also raising your frustration tolerance.
All right. What is frustration tolerance? That is the threshold where we want to [00:04:00] throw in the towel.
It is the point where we just can't tolerate the frustration anymore.
Three things that you should know about frustration tolerance. Okay.
Number one, it is absolutely different for everybody.
Number two, people with ADHD tend to have lower frustration tolerance.
And number three, we can- this is the important one- increase our frustration tolerance by continuing to do frustrating things and proving to ourselves that we can handle it.
All right. That's really important. To figure out if you're dealing with a feeling or a fact, you have to be honest about assessing your frustration tolerance.
Do you have low frustration tolerance in other areas of your life?
Do you give up easily? Are you annoyed, easily? Do you get flustered in other contexts other than work? Well then if so, maybe you are dealing with a feeling.
And maybe your job isn't hard per se like, like difficulty level. Right. But you're just finding it hard to deal [00:05:00] with. And if that's the case. then like I said, you're going to want to try some of the strategies in the rest of this episode, as well as work on raising your frustration tolerance.
All right. So let's move on. Let's assume that you have determined that your job is legitimately hard and it's just not an emotional reaction that you sometimes get to challenge.
All right. So then our second tip is two separate things you can control. From things you cannot control.
Now I talk about this in an episode where I talk, I think it's episode four, where I give you practical strategies for what to do when you're overwhelmed. But I am going to repeat it here. Uh, whenever we are trying to improve our situation, it is critical that we only focus on the things that we can change.
But in order to do this, we have to know the difference between the two.
So, this is where it's going to take a little work and a little brainstorming.
I don't know, you might need like 10 or 20 [00:06:00] minutes to do this and maybe even a pen and paper. All right.
But one way to start is to begin by making lists of absolutely everything about your job that you think is too hard, right?
You should generate this list freely and without judgment about what you are writing down.
You might just write down like names of people on your commute, a certain project that you're working on a recurring task that's expected of you.
Like, I don't know, a weekly report or maybe software that you can't figure out, the actual quantity of work then you have and finding time to do it within certain working hours, write it all down in a list.
Now you might be tempted to skip this step, but I am begging you not to.
The narrative we have in our heads is so much different when we put it on paper. And if you're truly looking for a solution to dealing with a job that's too hard then you've got to put in this work and clarify what it is that's making things hard.
And that [00:07:00] starts with a list.
Now the next part of this step involves looking at the list that you have in front of you and getting real about what you can control and what you can't control.
Again, the narrative that we have in our head is so much different when we have to put it on paper.
So, I want you marking up your list with things that you have control over versus things that you don't have control over.
Okay. One by one, go do the items on your list and face the music. Ask yourself:
can I control this? Is this something that I have the power or ability to tweak in any way?
If the answer is truly, truly no, then you've got to cross it off your list because we will not spend any energy on things that we can't control. Right.
So what remains on your list should be the items that you have at least some ability to change, even if it's just a little tweak.
Okay. So at this point, I want to give you an example because I think everything is better with an example.
Let's say that one of the items you have on your list that makes [00:08:00] their job hard is that your company just rolled out a new software and it's requiring all employees to use it.
Right. And you hate this software and you find it really difficult to use, but you know that you have no other choice and you can't pick another software. Okay. Is this something that we have control over? So we keep it on our list. Or is this something that we don't have control over and so we're going to cross it off?
What do you think? What do you think? See, this is where the work is, right. Being able to look at a situation like this and identify whether something is controllable or not is that challenge.
All right. Let's think about it. True. You have no control over the software, but there is absolutely something about this situation that you can control. You can control your skill level.
You can ask HR for more training. You can find tutorials online. You can ask a colleague to show you the ropes. You can start [00:09:00] writing yourself. SOP is every time you figure something out in the software so that you don't forget it the next time you need to do that process. Right. There is a lot about the situation that you can control. To make that aspect of your job easier. Right.
Now let's look at another example, let's say that your job. Um, in human resources he has gotten really, really hard because you're having to lay a lot of people off now, laying people off is hard.
Because we are human and compassionate and layoffs are complicated. All right. Period. End of story.
But at first glance, this might seem like something that you can't control because management is telling you to tell these people they're being let go and truth be told you can not control that.
But what you can control is perhaps your system for handling these layoffs.
Maybe you can only emotionally handle one or two layoffs a week. All right. So have that conversation with management that you're hoping you can spread out [00:10:00] the layoff schedule, who knows? They might say, okay. Right.
Maybe you can connect with another person in HR, even at another company and share strategies for communicating this news to employees.
Maybe there's something that you can do after every layoff to recalibrate your emotional state if you're finding that this is too emotionally taxing for you, right?
Maybe the layoffs are hard, not only because of the human component, but there's something about the process that feels disorganized and scattered.
So do you need to get more organized and how you handle this part of your job? Right.
So what we're doing here is we are creating a master list of all of the things that you find hard and identifying what you can control and what you can't control by looking at every item on your list as if it's something that you can control.
Because when we look at the things as if they are within our control, like as a given, we're more likely to find creative ways that we can make tweaks. Does that [00:11:00] make sense?
And then depending on what's on your list, the strategies you use to make your job easier will vary.
And that brings us to the third tip, which is to organize the three most important areas of your life.
In episode nine, the three most important areas to organize. I talk about task management, time management and space management.
If any of the items on your list from step two have to do with feeling like you're running out of time. Um, your calendar is chaotic. Your tasks are all over the place. You're forgetting deadlines. You're forgetting projects. You're losing things, right? If any of this is true then I all, but guarantee that your job will become so much easier if you take a look at the way that you're handling tasks, the time, and space, because these are the three areas that are kind of like the structural elements, right of our Workday, the steel beams, so to speak.
And then our actual work and our tasks and projects. That's like the sheetrock and the plaster in the windows, right? They're just at home construction. So I know, I know construction [00:12:00] words.
But if we don't have a strong structure, the steel beams, then our task time and space management systems and all the plaster and sheet, rock and windows will crumble.
And for many, many people, that's when everything starts to really feel hard.
So let's say for example, that you've identified that one aspect of your job that feels so hard as all of the projects that you were in charge of
you feel like another project or task is always being dumped on your plate
and there's just not enough time in the Workday to juggle it all.
Now, if we were to go back to step two, which is to separate what you can control from what you can't control, you might find that or think at first that this is something you can't control, right?
Like your boss is giving you these things and you know, you can't say no.
But because you were listening to this episode, trying to find ways to learn and work smarter you've agreed to look at your situation and find something about it that you can control.
Okay. Good for you. And that takes us to [00:13:00] step three, right? Which is to organize the three most important areas of your life.
Now in this context, it's probably a combination of, I'd say task and time management systems.
All right. So my challenge to you would be to look at your current time is when system and ask yourself, are there any tweaks that you can make?
Have you tried time-blocking? Have you tracked your time for a week, just like as data collection to see where exactly you're spending your work hours and on what projects? That's a really good practice.
Is there any chance that you're spending too much time answering emails and not enough time on work that, you know, moves the needle?
And then let's talk task management. If you're getting a ton of projects assigned to you, then you're going to need more than task management and you're going to need a project management system.
I actually talked about the difference between task and project management in episode 17, where I answered a listener's question about exactly this. Though in that episode, 17, I'll put all the links [00:14:00] in the show notes,
and if you're watching this on YouTube, I'll put it in the description box, but I emphasize that anyone that has a lot of projects on their plate, a simple task management system is usually not sufficient.
So do you need to upgrade your task management system become to become a project management system?
If you tweak your time and task management systems, you might realize that that was making your job hard and not the work itself. The structural elements, the steel beams, so to speak weren't in place.
Okay. So now I'm moving on to the fourth tip, which is to be resourceful.
Resourcefulness is one of the most valuable skills of any employee and for students too.
In episode seven, the six most valuable skills for school and work. I think I got that right. I know it's episode seven, I put resourcefulness as number one.
Resourcefulness is the ability to figure things out.
It's the ability to separate what you do know from what you don't know, and [00:15:00] then to figure out how to figure out what you don't know.
When you're in the professional space, it's really not okay to leave things in the like, I don't know status.
Now, it's perfectly fine if you don't know things, right. But that's your cue that you need to take another step in some kind of direction. We don't just leave it as, “I don't know how to do this.”
Now at the professional level, our job becomes so much harder when we don't make an effort to move beyond what we don't know.
Resourcefulness involves digging and digging down to identify the core nugget of our roadblock.
What exactly is the thing that we're getting stuck on?
What exactly is the thing that we don't know?
What exactly is the thing that we don't know? And then where can we go to figure that out? Where does the answer exist?
It exists somewhere.
Can you go to a boss? Can you go [00:16:00] to Google? Can you go to some ally? Can you go to a shared drive on your work company folder that has workflows and standard operating procedures available to everybody? Can you find a YouTube video? Right.
A person that I follow in the entrepreneurial space, Marie Forleo has an expression that I love.
She's always saying that everything is figureoutable. Absolute-a-freaking-lutely.. Everything is figureoutable.
I think this is brilliant and it's a mindset that we need to adopt when we find ourselves thinking that our jobs are too hard.
Okay. So after you've made your big master list of things that are challenging and after you've separated what you can control from what you can't control, and after you've made sure that your core systems are solid, what remains as a roadblock is the thing that you need to figure out.
So go do that.
Now, I'm going to wrap up with our fifth tip and this is the last one for [00:17:00] reason.
I'm listing this last, because it's a last resort and I want you to try all four items on the list before you use this strategy.
Ask management for help. There is absolutely no shame at all in asking for help, asking for help is a brilliant strategy.
And it's one actually that I just recommended you do in the previous step as part of being resourceful.
Right. But this is a little bit different in the professional space.
In, in most cases it's wise to be resourceful independently or with colleagues before going to your boss. But sometimes you can reach a roadblock that all the resourcefulness in the world won't help you get around.
And a manager will be responsive to employees who approach them for help after they've made solid efforts to help themselves first.
Now it might actually be the case that something you've been asked to do is beyond your zone of ability.
All right. There is a chance that maybe your [00:18:00] boss misread a situation, um, assumed that you had been trained a certain way. Uh, sir assumed that you had a certain skill set or knowledge base, but you did it. Okay. And in that case it might be effective or it will be effective to communicate your situation to your boss or to your manager set up a meeting. Explain the situation. Be clear about what you're struggling on.
Right. And all the attempts that you've made prior to the meeting to work through it. Okay.
And then come prepared to ask specific questions. You don't want to dump your problem on the boss. That's not going to get you the help that you need. Like I said, you present your problem. You present the efforts that you've already made to rectify it. And then you ask a direct question.
All right. For example, is there someone here who can train me on this software? I've already asked so-and-so and so-and-so. Can you and I set up a time to go over how you would like this done? I can do these three dates.
Um, is there an example from a prior project I can use as a [00:19:00] model?
I looked at the one from last month, but I'm looking for something a little bit different, right?
These are specific questions that will help you get the specific help that you need. And it just might turn out that you and your boss reach an agreement where you get the training you need.
Oh my gosh. Imagine that.
Or the project gets handed to someone else who's better suited to do it. But you don't know until you try. Right.
So I want to do a recap of the five strategies of what to do when your job is too hard.
The first strategy is to identify if you are dealing with a feeling or a fact.
The second strategy is to separate things that, you know,
The second strategy is to separate things you can control from things that you can't control.
And the third strategy is to organize the three most important areas of your work life, which is task management, time management and, um, physical and digital space management.
Tip four. Be resourceful.
And tip five, ask management [00:20:00] for help.
And then to remember what I said at the top of this episode, which is that our jobs being a little bit frustrating, some of the time is a sign that you're in the pocket, you're at the right level.
And you, my friend, don't shy away from hard things.
And with that, I leave you with my best advice, which is to never stop learning.
