How to Catch Up When You've Fallen Behind

As a kid, I was totally charmed by old episodes of I Love Lucy. There’s this one classic clip in which she’s working at a chocolate factory—her job is to grab and box the candies as they come down the conveyor. Of course, something goes awry and the candies start flying at her faster than she can manage. Not wanting to seem incapable, she starts popping those candies into her mouth, down her shirt, and hilarity ensues.

 

It’s such a perfect metaphor for how we can experience work sometimes. We’re high-achieving, ambitious, striving people who want to seem like we can handle all the candy—no matter how fast it comes at us.

 

A colleague of mine recently asked if declaring “to-do-list bankruptcy” was a thing. I told him I was stealing that pearl for today’s episode. Because sometimes we all need to give ourselves permission to hit that “emergency” button on the conveyor of life!

 

Having limits is human. Let’s talk about what you can do when you realize yours have been pierced—that your list of projects, goals, tasks, objectives has overwhelmed you and you just need a minute.

1. Ask for help

Too commonly, we associate asking for help with revealing a personal weakness.

 

But if you watch that Lucy clip, you’ll see that the candy is just flying at her at a pace no human could manage. Chomping those chocolates may be the right choice when the goal is comedy. But had this been real life, the strategic choice would have been to ask someone to shut down the conveyor so she could catch her breath and start again.

 

If your to-do or to-achieve list is feeling overwhelming right now, recognize a long list is just a long list. It’s not a symbol of your personal failure. Your job is to keep those balls from hitting the floor.

 

Be strong and confident as you raise that red flag. This isn’t a moment for “Ugh—I’m so sorry, but I can’t handle everything.” Instead, try “I’m looking across everything upcoming and I’m taking accountability for ensuring nothing falls through the cracks. Can we talk about putting a project on pause or getting me an additional resource?”

 

It’s a strategic ask—not a fail. No shame required or permitted.

2. Make a micro-list

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time… goes the old aphorism.

 

Our to-do lists tend to be made up of elephants. Look at mine and you’ll see things like:

• Design that executive offsite
• Build that leadership program
• Develop marketing collateral for the employee engagement workshop 

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