Dealing with conflicts between responsibility and limitations in terms of time and work volume

A second frequently occurring restraining thought is: ‘It’s my responsibility, so I have to do it, even if I have no time. ‘

The consequence of this inhibiting thought is that you go beyond your limits. As a result, you can overburden yourself and have an increased risk of burnout.

To avoid burnout and overload it is important to learn to say NO when this is necessary. That is why it’s important that you have no restraining but realistic and factual thoughts about saying NO. This realistic idea is that it’s normal and logical that something is your responsibility, but that because of circumstances (e.g. too much work for that day, week, …) you will not be able to do it after all. It’s not because something is your responsibility that you always have time to do everything within a certain time span. Some things just have to wait. If you already have other things to do, this sometimes does not allow you to take on extras at that moment.

At that moment it is better to address this to your supervisor and to find a solution together. This could for example consist of the fact that the manager changes your priorities for a while and that certain work shifts to later.