6 simple steps to prevent overwhelm
Feeling Overwhelmed With Life’s Demands? - Follow These 6 Easy Steps to Stay on Track
The fast pace of life, the ever-changing technology, the laundry list of steps and tips from all the gurus, can often leave us feeling overwhelmed. Do you ever find yourself asking these questions - How do I keep up? How do I fit it all in? Am I using the latest technology to make it all easier? But many times trying to do it all, leaves us doing nothing at all. It can be paralyzing - not knowing where to start can leave us not starting at all. Too many priorities can end up leaving us stuck without knowing which priority to tackle first, and then we throw our hands up and don’t tackle any of it.
If you’re like me, there are times I just avoid the situation. Leave the organizing, scheduling, and phone calls for another day. Watching Netflix, scrolling mindlessly through my phone, or napping, is often more enticing. And I’m one that thrives on structure, order, organization, and routine. But the feeling of ‘too much’ makes knowing where to start hard for anyone, including me.
But, when I find myself getting off track, I go back to my Organization 101 Method. Following these 6 steps helps get me back on track, energized, and ready to tackle the tasks no matter what they are. They could be grocery shopping, cleaning, matching schedules with my significant other for the upcoming month, calling the repair person, scheduling vet appointments for my beloved fur baby, or yard work, and the list goes on and on. You name it, I feel I can do anything. And you can do it too!
Step 1: Make a List
It’s probably the one thing people have told you to do your whole life - teachers at school, supervisors at work, or your mom or dad. Spoiler alert - they’re all right! Making a list helps you get all the chatter and murmur spinning around in your head out in a productive way. Writing it down is a release of energy. Whether you do anything else that day, just this act of writing it down feels like an accomplishment. And it is! One that you can take a moment to celebrate.
Step 2: Organize the List
Now, I know you might be thinking that organizing is overwhelming or you don’t like to organize. And that’s ok! This is a small step of organization that can take on many forms, one that works best for you. Here are a couple that I use often.
Categorize Your List:
You can look at your original list and make a quick note of the different categories these items might fall into. For example, grocery shopping, putting gas in the car, or picking up snacks for school could all be categorized as errands. Another example could include cleaning the bathroom, finishing laundry, starting the dishwasher, and picking up the playroom. These can all be categorized as cleaning or chores. Once you’ve got a quick mental list of categories, you can write them off to the side and start putting the tasks into those corresponding categories. And of course, as you complete the items, cross them off!
Narrow Down Your List:
You can also look at your list and determine the top 5 items you plan to accomplish that day. Circle them, star them, highlight them, or choose another method that works for you. There are times I take those 5 items and write them on a post-it note and put it on top of the original list so they stand out even more. Sometimes I’m so good at writing EVERYTHING down, but that gets overwhelming, so I have to make the few I’m focusing on stand out. I need everything written down and out of my head, but I don’t always need to see it all at once. Once you’ve accomplished the items, cross them off. When all of the items on the post-it are complete, throw it away! Then you can go back to your original list and cross those items off there too.
Set Due Dates on Your List:
Another option is to look at your original list and then map out which items you’ll complete and when during the upcoming week(s). For example, you could pick out the most time sensitive items and put them off to the side or on a post-it with the intention of completing them that day. Then, for the others, you could write the days of the week off to the side of your original list and put corresponding items to those days. This will tell you the 3-5 items you’ll complete each day of the upcoming week.
Step 3: Work During Your Most Productive Hours
You probably know by now when you’re the most productive and when you’re not. I know I am NOT productive in the evening. Especially during the fall/winter months when it’s colder and dark outside. I prefer to be curled up under a blanket relaxing after a busy day. But I AM the most productive in the morning. I’m energized and ready to get moving. I want to enjoy my space and feel fresh and ready from the start of the day. It’s like when my mom used to have me make my bed everyday before I left for school. It was annoying, but it also left me feeling renewed and fresh for the day. When I came home my room felt clean and inviting. And to this day, I still make my bed every morning.
Working during the time you have the most energy will set you up for success from the beginning. Trying to process, organize, and declutter when you’re tired and/or unmotivated will leave you feeling frustrated and you won’t see your productivity or feel any sense of accomplishment. So choose the time that works best for you. If you have to work during a time that’s not your most productive, set small goals or milestones to help keep you on track and feel accomplished at the end.
Step 4: Set a Timer to Help With Time Management
It can be easy to get carried away and what you thought might take an hour or so could end up taking the whole day. Or, on the flip side, it’s very easy to get distracted and not accomplish much of what you set out to do in the first place. I like to give myself a mental timeframe, but you can also write it down if that helps you stick to it. I set the time based on how long it usually takes me to complete tasks. But, there are also times I race myself and try to get through tasks quicker than I have before. Sometimes this is due to what else I have going on during the day - for example, we have an evening planned with friends, so I have a hard stop at 3:00pm. This gives me time to clean up and get myself ready. So I plan out what I can complete by 3:00pm. Other times, it’s due to my preferences. I want to be done by 1:00pm so I can watch this show, or make lunch, etc.
Step 5: Finish One Task Before Moving On to the Next
This one can be hard. I struggle with this one from time to time. Let’s say I’m straightening up the clutter around my house on a Saturday morning from what feels like a tornado blew through during the work week. I like to do this first thing in the morning, but after my coffee, of course. I typically start in the kitchen. There could be dishes left in the sink from Friday night or the dishwasher needs to be unloaded. We also have a built-in desk next to our refrigerator and it becomes a ‘catch all’ for everything we bring home during the week. It has our keys, the mail, grocery store receipts, gadgets, etc. The clutter control of this space during the week is near impossible. So, I give it a refresh on Saturday mornings!
But, as I begin there and work my way around the house putting items back where they belong, I find myself getting sidetracked in rooms and tidying up those rooms. For example, if I take something up to my bedroom, I might stay in there and start sorting laundry from our hamper. Then I bring the laundry down to the laundry room. In there, I see towels in the dryer that need to be folded and put away. So, I go to the living room and fold them. In the living room I start picking up my dog’s toys. Some of those toys have fuzz which I take to the kitchen to throw away in the trashcan and realize I’m back where I started and the desk still has items to clean up and organize. Whew, this squirrel brain leaves me feeling more drained and now I have pieces of things in process, but not completed. And it’s not in one room of my house, it’s in multiple - the kitchen, the laundry room, the living room, and so on!
So get that tunnel vision and keep reminding yourself as you work to clean up one room, your goal is to put things away and get back to that room until it’s organized and complete. Then you can move onto the next room.
Step 6: Do A Little Bit Each Day
The days are long and the weeks are busy. Always. Even when you look at your calendar and you don’t have many things scheduled, as the week goes on, it feels like you’ve gone non-stop. The last thing you want to do at the end of a busy day is clean up clutter, fold laundry, or tackle home repairs. But, unfortunately, those lists continue to get longer, not shorter, and your time for it seems to shrink. As that feeling of being overwhelmed starts to take over, it’s easy to avoid it and push it off to ‘later.’ And you’d rather spend your time playing with your kids, out with friends, decorating for the holidays, or watching a movie with your significant other anyway. So how do you fit it all in?
Doing a little bit each day is the answer. If you let it continue to pile up and plan to tend to it over the weekend, you usually find your schedule competing with these to-do list items and the other weekend fun such as sports or other events. Before you know it, you find your weekend is gone in a flash and you’re even more drained and probably frustrated you couldn’t fit it all in.
Instead of waiting until the end of the week, do a few items each day. It can even be ONE item each day. This will help leave more time on the weekends for the other things in your life. As I shared above, I’m productive in the mornings. I choose to get up a few hours before I have to. This is time for me. Time to drink coffee, walk my dog, watch the news, journal, etc. It’s also time where I can put away that basket of laundry I didn’t get to the night before. Or empty the dishwasher so it’s ready for dinner dishes that night. But if you’re a night owl, these things can be done in the evening before bed.
So, the next time you find yourself with a lot of things on your mind and on your to-do list, follow these 6 steps to help take you out of the overwhelmed tailspin and back to a grounded, productive state.
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