This week I am sharing 5 Things; To Stop You Feeling Overwhelmed.
Are you stressed? Do you feel like you are constantly chasing your tail? Never achieving everything you want and feeling like a bit of a failure because of it? Are you constantly juggling a million different tasks? Suffering from information overload? Feeling overwhelmed? Then these things may just help you to regain control of your life.
- Write lists! – This may not come as a shock, but I LOVE lists. The process of writing things down on paper helps me feel more in control. If you are not an old school pen and paper fan, then there are plenty of apps that can help. Organise your list however works best for you. Maybe in time chunks, i.e. tasks that take 5 minutes in one column, 15 minutes in another, longer tasks in a third. Maybe a separate list for weekly tasks. Ticking things off make you feel like you are achieving, which is very important.
- Use time wisely – Think about your tasks, can you do something while waiting for an appointment? Can you make that telephone call (on speaker phone) while you are cooking dinner? Planning ahead means you will always have things with you to complete a task.
- Create boundaries – We can’t get time back and we need to make sure we spend it wisely. Firstly, work out what is important to you. How much time do you have?Then start setting yourself boundaries that aren’t moved by incoming distractions. Does email sap your time, why not just check it once a day for 20 minutes? Do you want to set a bedtime, to prevent you working into the early hours. Being a blogger means that you don’t clock in and out which is great, but the downside is we never seem to clock off. So set yourself a clocking off time. Then maybe read in bed for a while before going to sleep to help you wind down.
- What is most important – It is really hard to focus when we feel overwhelmed. Our minds can be swimming with information and the never-ending demands on our time, some of it if we are honest we don’t really want to do. So think about what is important to you and focus your efforts on these tasks. You could try using Toyoda’s 5 Why’s Technique to help you get the route cause of why you are feeling overwhelmed.
- Don’t try to be supermum/dad – You can’t do it all, no-one can. The sooner you accept that the better. If faced with a choice or work/chores are being with your children, pick the children. Children will forget a dirty house, they will remember a mum/dad who didn’t have time for them.
Have you any tips for overcoming feeling overwhelmed?
