I was an XO for an MI company in Germany straight out of BOLC, and the one thing I quickly learned is that sometimes you cannot do everything.  The key to succeeding is learning to identify the tasks that (1) you (or your commander) financially, or legally, pay for if you fail, (2) your higher commanders prioritizes, or (3) your Soldiers care about.  While SECARMY may be reducing some of the overtasking of Soldiers, at the end of the day there will always be more work you *can* do.

As an XO, you will likely be yelled at by the BN XO or one of the staff primaries on a regular basis because when something falls through the cracks it is your fault.  Do not take this personally, and remember that at the end of the day you are there to help your commander accomplish the mission and take care of Soldiers.  Mission success doesn’t mean everything is done right every time, it means the key things are done well when it counts.

When it came to taking work home, I was pretty bad at that early on as an XO while I read the regulations around everything I was asked to do.  However, it’s important that you read those regulations as that is how you learn what is important for #1 from above.  There are a lot of items that are essentially “nice to haves” in regulation, and there are others that are “must dos” that “cannot be delegated” (money and innately command authority tend to be the two big things here).  Once you understand these, you can start prioritizing internally so that neither you nor your commander end up holding the bag on a several thousand dollar check.

Some specific “no fail” jobs that cannot be delegated are:  DTS approving official (the AO is 100% liable for incorrect approvals), GPC billing official (they are 100% liable for incorrect purchases), and cyclic inventories (the commander *must* do the cyclic, otherwise they may pay the full cost of discrepancies – 1 months pay doesn’t apply for them).  After these tasks, it comes down to ensuring you’re helping your commander meet their goals while ensuring your Soldiers are taken care of.