[cscharenberg]

If you are talking about being overburdened by too much work, here's my thoughts:

I prioritize. I get as much as I can done in my usual 40 hours, maybe 50. Anything left undone apparently wasn't high enough priority, so gets dropped. I either delegate it or ignore it.

I used to put in long hours and scramble to do lots of extra work. My company pays me for 40 hours a week, so they get the highest value work I can do for those 40 hours.

If you're not using discretion and simply ignoring some things, you're not working effectively, you're being an automaton with no judgement. There's a lot of low-value things people request you to do or be involved in at work. You have to blow some of it off or you're wasting your own potential and time.

-- Don't anybody read into this I'm some kind of time-guarding jerk at work. This is my general mindset, but being practical and adaptable is important, as is being sure your manager agrees with your assessment of priorities.