4 Simple Steps to Beat Overwhelm Anytime
The most important thing when feeling overwhelmed is to make the tasks manageable; here’s how to do that…
The feeling of overwhelm can crush all your plans of being productive. I get overwhelmed quite a lot, and here´s how I deal with it.
Let’s stop wasting time, and jump right into it.
1. Realize and acknowledge that you are overwhelmed.
A sure tell is that you are not really getting anything done, and you are jumping between tasks because you don’t really know where and how to start.
2. Get your mind off it.
Go for a walk or whatever you need to do to clear your mind.
3. Get clear on what needs to get done.
If you have multiple tasks you need to get done you have to decide what you need to work on first.
Use this method of dividing your task or to-do list into 4 separate piles. (the Eisenhower Method)
- Tasks that are important and urgent
- Tasks that are important but not urgent
- Tasks that are urgent but not important
- Tasks that are not important and not urgent
Choose one of the tasks you have in pile no. 1, if nothing is there, choose a task from pile 2.
If you only have one large task, that overwhelms you, jump to step 4.
4. Make the task(s) clearer and easier by dividing it into small actionable steps.
Often the tasks on our to-do lists require a lot of steps to actually finish, this can easily cause the feeling of overwhelm. Break the task into as many small steps as possible. 1 step equals 1 action.
Example:
Task: Getting your car serviced. To do that you need to call the mechanic, but before that, you need to find your calendar and check out which dates and times that fit you best, maybe you even need to call a friend for the number for the automobile repair shop. All of these single items are action steps.
Even when using such a seemingly straightforward and easy task as an example, one to-do list task actually requires quite a few action steps. Having a to-do list full of tasks that have multiple action steps, can make you feel unsure of how to get started. Dividing your task into small action steps will make the list much easier and less overwhelming to approach.
If you have a large task, like writing a sales page or doing accounting, it is very important that you divide the task into small actionable steps. Don’t figure out ALL the steps from the beginning, as this might make you feel even more overwhelmed, just write down a few steps at a time.
Overwhelm is caused by not being clear on what to do or how to handle a specific task or a number of tasks. By clearing your mind and making the tasks small, simple, and straightforward, your overwhelm will be beaten.
Loving Life, Living Life
Sincerely Maria
