Frustrated

LegacyUser

I work in a small setting. I report to my boss, everyone else is equal and can't sign off on what I do. There is no opportunity or money to hire additional staff, my boss has no assistant or deputy. Before explaining further I want to say that I appreciate that my boss works extremely hard. More hours than I, more travel, more internal and external activities and the breadth of her responsibilities is far greater than mine. Also, I want to say that I am very fortunate as she is not a bully or anything like that.

My issue is getting face time with her to discuss my work. This is currently very limited, bordering on impossible. As a result, things are falling down the priority list, deadlines and opportunities have been missed because I can't get talking to her. I send her reminders, deadlines, what I need to do, but invariably at the moment things fall through the cracks. Examples include - submissions, research, applications, etc. All dropped, abandoned because I have no time to talk with her, or am lacking direction.

She forgets a lot and I can't blame her. She gets more emails than I. At the same time, sometimes she gives conflicting information and changes her mind. Or she will do something that sounds different to a protocol that we had agreed earlier in the year leaving me confused. Or, she'll ask me again for something I've already answered before or dig up emails I've already answered 3-4 times. Some stuff has been on my desk for months now because I can't get adequate time with her to say yes or no. I can't only take things so far and can't move it forward to the next stage without her approval.

How can I raise this? It is affecting my productivity and making me very frustrated (particularly today, I'm beyond drained) because when we're very busy things intensify and things slip even further. How can I bring this up with her to get what I need, but do so diplomatically?