What to do when a day gets overwhelming
Have you ever had one of those days when it feels like you have a mountain of tasks to get through, but no matter how hard you work or how fast you go it seems like you never get any closer to finishing than when you started?
The truth about life is that there are always a hundred little distractions that will get in your way and few of them have anything to do with the important tasks you need to be focusing on. This is especially true if you work from home (which most of us are doing now).
It’s days like this when it's all too easy to get completely overwhelmed and if you suffer from an anxiety disorder this can spell trouble. That feeling of being overwhelmed often comes before a panic attack and it can feel like no strategy in the world can stop it.
So, the question is, how do you stick to your important tasks and reach your goals while still getting everything else done all without getting totally overwhelmed and burnt out?
It all starts at the beginning of the day.
Having a morning routine is so important when it comes to managing a busy day. When you have a morning routine you give yourself a chance to get focused for the day, you start the day on a calm note, and it's this calm that you can take into the rest of the day.
How do you create that calmness? The secret lies in taking some time to structure and plan your day before it begins and deciding on your priorities for the day ahead of you.
When you structure your day, and then actually stick to your plan of action you give yourself a focus for the day and when you know what to focus on there’s less chance that you’ll get distracted by ‘fluff’ tasks that only suck up your time but don't help you meet your goals.
While you may be used to seeing planners packed to the margins with little boxes where all sorts of ‘important information goes, these are actually counterproductive. That’s because when you label everything as important, nothing becomes important and you end up trying to do it all at the same time and overwhelm starts setting in.
But when you have only a couple of sections to your daily planner you can quickly see what you need to focus on for the day, what needs to get done and what appointments you have for the day. You avoid getting lost in the clutter of an overstuffed daily planner.
Another trick to keeping calm is to avoid using a schedule system - where you plot out every hour of your day. That’s because you can never really know how long a task will take. Something that you thought would take 5 minutes may end up taking an hour to complete. This messes up the rest of your day’s schedule and your stress and anxiety levels start rising higher and higher the more things shift in your schedule.
So what’s the solution?
Instead of planning every hour of the day try taking it easier on yourself and create a more realistic agenda for the day.
Begin by using a page a day diary and divide the page into 3 sections:
- your top priorities for the day,
- your appointments,
- and your to-do list.
Keeping all the important information in one place means no more lost sticky notes or overstuffed pages, and you have created a structure for your day that you can see at a glance.
To help you out I’ve created a guidebook with all my favourite strategies for starting a hyper-productive, calm day. I’ve also included my daily planner and show you exactly how to use it.
Your top 3 priorities
The first thing you will need to do is decide what your top 3 priorities for the day are in 3 main categories of your life: yourself, your work and home. (yours could look different) These 3 categories are the 3 main aspects of your life that demand attention each and every day and can be unique to you and your circumstances.
Plan out your priorities for the day. Ask yourself: what are the 3 things you absolutely need to get done today?
Break it down into categories like: self and work. If you have kids you can add a section for that too.
Then plot only 3 priority tasks per column.
Now, when you feel like you have a million things to get to, come back to that little list and remind yourself that you just need to get your priority tasks done.
This will help you focus on the important work, everything else can wait.
Stick to having 3 main categories or you will end up with too many priority tasks. This will just lead you right back to an overwhelming day.
As much as we would like to think that we are superhuman, we’re actually not. We only have a finite number of hours in a day to get things done, and a finite amount of mental and physical energy to do it all with. When you run out of energy but still have a giant list of tasks ahead of you thats when overwhelm and burnout starts setting in.
So, you need to decide where your energy will go, early on in the day. Then focus on those tasks that are the highest priority first. Picking a maximum of 3 tasks to focus on under each of the 3 categories will make it easier for you to direct your energy and structure your day around those top-priority tasks.
Now, whenever you get distracted by small, unimportant time-consuming tasks come back to this list of priority tasks for your day and remind yourself that your time will be better spent working on these tasks.
Your appointments
The second thing you will need to think about is your appointments for the day. Instead of writing down your appointments on tiny pieces of paper, then losing them, or relying on your memory, you need to create a system that will allow you to keep track of any and all appointments coming up during the day without leaving you feeling overwhelmed.
Under your list of priorities for the day, write down any and all appointments you have for that day. Having them both on the same page means that you can structure your time around both your appointments for the day and your priorities for the day.
Your to-do list
To do lists are vital but there are a few things you need to keep in mind when making a to-do list if you want to stay in control of your day.
1 - Having a to-do list is different from having a priority list. A ‘to-do’ list can be made up of smaller tasks that you need to take care of during the day. They can either fall under the priority list items, or they can be separated from them altogether.
2 - You need to keep your tpo-do list short to avoid getting overwhelmed. It’s important to make sure that you don't add fluff items to your to-do list.
An effective ‘to do’ list is your best friend when it comes to avoiding overwhelm.
A lot of the time we feel overwhelmed because we are trying to remember what we need to do for the day and we try to do too much in a day .
But 5 tasks can feel like 20 when you’re busy. Because we can't see these tasks written out in front of us we feel like the list is longer than it actually is. This alone is enough to trigger overwhelm in even the calmest person.
The easy solution here is to simply write it all down and keep the list short. If some tasks have subtasks, write those down too. Keep nothing in your head.
Then, cross off the items as you complete them.
This will help you feel more in-control of your day and the work you need to get done.
Creating some downtime
It can be so tempting to simply push through the night to finish up a project, even though you feel so stressed out that it feels like the world is literally spinning. But it's at times like these that you absolutely need even a little down time.
If you work when you’re burned out and overwhelmed you are bound to make mistakes that you would otherwise have avoided. The quality of your work goes down and worse still, even if you cope for today, you will burn out in a couple of days. No one can handle feeling overwhelmed for long stretches.
Having some downtime at the end of your day, especially a particularly difficult one means that you will be in better shape to handle the coming stress tomorrow too. You will have the emotional strength to handle whatever comes your way. This also means that you will actively avoid having a panic attack when things get out of hand.
This is the real key to avoiding overwhelm and a panic attack when life gets to be too much.
How do you make some down time when work or life gets crazy? Schedule some downtime each evening where you can unwind and unburden yourself of the stressors of the day. It can be 1 hour or just 10 minutes and you can do something like meditate, go for a walk, talk to a friend.
Getting rid of the stress of the day will help you actively avoid getting overwhelmed.
When you are planning your day keep in mind that you are only human.
Make sure that your day isn't too cluttered. When you have a cluttered day it becomes easy to feel overwhelmed and out of control. The key here is to take control of your day.
You can do this by making sure that you have a good balance between your appointments and tasks that you need to get through for the day. If you have a lot of appointments, then make sure that your to-do list and priority lists are short enough that you can get through everything, and vice versa.
Avoiding overwhelm when you have anxiety is more than just about coping at work, it’s about taking care of your mental and physical health. It's about loving yourself enough to set boundaries around your time and energy and putting the important things first.
If you’re ready to learn how to unlock the secrets to a happier, healthier you and living the life you've always craved using self-care, then you’re going to love the “Thriving from Within” ebook bundle.
This ebook bundle is packed with easy-to-follow step-by-step guides and invaluable printables to help you Revamp Your Mindset and boost your self-care routine.
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