📌 Key takeaways
- Critical information overload: over 50% of emails are replied to within an hour, and 58% of managers report feeling intense stress due to this pressure (Observatoire de l’Infobésité, Apec 2025).
- Prioritisation as a key driver of performance: clarifying your objectives and knowing how to say no helps reduce interruptions and allows you to focus on high-value-added tasks.
- Deep Work to regain efficiency: setting aside dedicated blocks of time for concentration and limiting distractions improves productivity and the quality of decisions.
- Autonomy and dialogue for sustainable management: empowering your team and communicating your limits to stakeholders allows you to move away from the ‘control tower’ role and prevent burnout.
Between Slack notifications, back-to-back meetings, and the infamous “can you take a quick look at this?”, many managers feel like they are playing “survival mode” at the office.
The diagnosis is clear: we are drowning. According to the latest barometer from the Observatoire de l’Infobésité, managers have to deal with an avalanche of emails every week, with implicit pressure to respond immediately (more than 50% of emails receive a reply within an hour!).
The result? By trying to be everywhere and respond to everyone, we’re not getting anything done. Managers are becoming overheated “control towers.” The findings are alarming: 58% of managers report feeling intense stress at work, often linked to this overload and the accumulation of roles, according to the latest APEC 2025 Mental Health Study of Executives.
So how can you regain control without isolating yourself in a cave? Here are six concrete ways to get some breathing room.
1. Clarify your goals (the compass)
Unclear goals leave the door open to all kinds of interruptions. If you don’t know exactly what your priorities are, everything becomes urgent. Having clear goals is like turning on your headlights in foggy conditions: you can see where you’re going and waste less energy dealing with distractions. (To take this further: giving meaning back to goals is also the best way to motivate your teams).
2. Master the art of saying “No”
Saying no doesn’t mean being closed-minded or unpleasant. It means being clear about your limits and respectful of your time (and that of others!). Responding with “I’ll see” for the 15th time when you know it’s impossible isn’t doing anyone any favors. It’s just putting off the problem. Knowing how to say no assertively requires emotional agility, but it’s the only way to remain effective.
3. Block out real periods of concentration
We’re not talking about the 15-minute break between two video calls. We’re talking about real pockets of calm (Deep Work). An hour where Teams is turned off, the door is closed, and you can make progress on your core tasks. No pings, no noise, no interruptions.
4. Give your team breathing room (autonomy)
Autonomy does not mean leaving your employees to fend for themselves. It means allowing them to make decisions and solve problems without always going through you. If you approve every minor decision, you will remain an exhausted bottleneck. Trust your employees and step out of the control tower role. This is one of the pillars of positive management: trust builds competence.
5. Take meaningful breaks
Let’s be honest: secretly scrolling through your emails in the bathroom is not a break. A real break should reduce cognitive pressure. Walk, breathe, talk about something else. It’s physiological: to regain clarity, you need to reduce tension.
6. Talk about it (seriously)
To your manager, your HR department, your team. Saying “this is too much” is not complaining. It is demonstrating professional responsibility. There is no medal for “discreet burnout.” Taking back control of your working conditions is a duty to yourself, but also to protect your team by setting an example.
You are not a hotline. Nor are you a web browser with 35 tabs open. You are a manager. And you have the right to set healthy boundaries.
So, the next time someone asks you for availability for “just a quick chat”… you’ll know what to do, right ? 😉
