4am Panic →

Michael Lopp · Rands in Repose ·

For leaders or truly anyone with a team, the best advice to managing late night stress from all the work piling up is straightforward.

  1. Make a list of all the impossible tasks
  2. “List the people who merit your belief in their reliability, truth, ability, or strength. We’re talking about work here so I’m assuming these are co-workers, but don’t limit yourself to your immediate team or leads. Who is everyone in the company that you fully trust?”

“…There’s a reason you signed up for all these impossible tasks and big rocks. You were coming from an enthusiastic and optimistic place, but if you’re a leader of humans, the right answer might be to ask for help. The right answer might be to give the task to someone else who might not do as good a job, but who will learn more than you.”