Take time to rest, do not overwork yourself. A bit every day adds up to a lot...

The past month, I've literally overworked myself and fallen off the routine I set for myself. Initially the projects I took on didn't appear like they'd affect my personal projects. But it got overwhelming quick when I had to take on an entire project because my teammates were inert, and unproductive dead weights.

How do you deal with teammates who don't pull their weights?

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I like to, as often as I can structure things out, so everything runs like a well oiled machine. But you cannot always plan for things like having dead weights in an entire team. I honestly wanted to back out, but my name was also associated with the project, and I knew from my experience with them that they would do a half ass job, so I had to stay on and do everything myself and make sure it was all well and good before putting them in my rearview mirror.

But that ate into the time allocated to more productive projects; my writing, my podcasts, my blog and the Coalition Awards. It even compounded my duties as an ambassador on Wattpad and a group moderator for Inkitt.

I excel at multitasking, and I enjoy doing more than one thing at a time. But believe me, there are times when, no matter how great you are at it, there's such a thing as too much.

And I hit that last week.

Usually when you realize that, you're burned out.

Burnout occurs when you're overwhelmed, and emotionally drained. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.

Emotionally, I was angry with the team members on that particular project who were doing nothing. Since it was a virtual project, there wasn't much I could do, and I have never understood why people take up projects they have no interest in contributing to.

Here I am, exhausted in all forms of the word, and trying to make sure the burnout from taking this project on alone doesn't affect my productivity in other projects. Pacing yourself is good. Only take on what is manageable, because sometimes what you are capable of taking on, due to no fault of your own can become overwhelming quickly when timelines and unproductive teammates become a part of it.

Once you've committed yourself to more than you know you can handle, work out a strategy to pace yourself to the finish line, in degrees of what you can handle daily until their deadline. If it's too much, it'll be best to reach out and take a step back. Don't go quiet on your team, it is very unprofessional and aggravating.

Reach out with a sincere note of apology, and move on. It's better than leaving a team hanging when you've committed to a task.

I have resolved at this point, to no longer take on projects with team members whose track records I know nothing of. I won't be stuck in such a rut again, it's unhealthy and the mental strain is frustratingly overwhelming.

Have you ever taken on more work than you could handle? How did you manage it?