The Independent School Podcast with Juliet Corbett
The Independent School Podcast shares real-world leadership conversations with Principals, Heads and CEOs from across independent and international schools, exploring what it means to lead well in an increasingly complex world.
Hosted by executive coach and trusted advisor Juliet Corbett, the podcast offers clear, practical insight into staying strategic amidst daily pressures, making high-stakes decisions with confidence and shaping high-performing school cultures. Juliet brings her cross-sector experience and more than two decades of work in education to conversations designed to spark your best thinking.
If you want calm, reflective insight that helps you slow the pace, sharpen your focus and navigate complexity with clarity and courage, this podcast is for you.
The Independent School Podcast with Juliet Corbett
166: Overwhelm or Overload?
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Do you have a clear idea of how much you can achieve in a week? It’s very easy to be overly optimistic about what it is possible to get done. And then when you don’t achieve your goals for the week, it’s easy to slip into a habit of working extra hours to tick all those things off your to do list.
This kind of overload is inevitable occasionally, but if you are consistently over-estimating what’s possible it can lead to building feelings of overwhelm and then potentially burnout.
Key Lessons from this episode:
1) Overwhelm and overload can feel the same, but they are caused by different things and so the solutions are different.
2) Being overly optimistic about how much can be accomplished in a given timeframe can lead to overload.
3) Tracking time to understand how long tasks actually take can provide clarity on workload and prevent overload.
4) Avoiding the pressure to constantly work harder and instead focusing on sustainable productivity is essential.
Episode links
Episode 165: ‘My Solution to Overwhelm’
Cal Newport podcast episode: ‘Decoding Overload’
Cal Newport podcast episode: ‘Start with Discipline'
Discover what it's like to have Juliet as your coach: www.consultjuliet.co.uk/executive-coaching
Contact Juliet: hello@consultjuliet.co.uk
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