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Apr

20

How to Deal When You’re Overwhelmed

Blog Claendar

It’s been a crazy week. With travel, new clients, and a growing blog to manage, I have become a little over-burdened… and this morning I finally felt overwhelmed.

I rarely feel overwhelmed, but when I do, it can be disastrous. Fortunately, I know that overwhelm can lead me to procrastination and anger, so I deal with it fast A long time ago I figured out how to get things set so that I don’t have to worry, and then get to work to reduce the amount of things I’m obligated to do - not by canceling or avoiding, but by doing.

The Story

I check my email first thing in the morning on my phone, before I even get out of bed. This serves two purposes: 1) I wake up fully - there’s nothing more motivating to get me out of bed than a fire in my inbox, and 2) to give me something productive to think about as I shower, make coffee, do my makeup and get dressed.

So this morning I checked my email on my phone while lying in bed, knowing that it was Sunday and probably there would be nothing. Normally on any given day there will be one or two emails that I need to attend to - “actionable emails,” as I call them. This morning, however, there were SEVEN. Honestly, that’s not a lot, but it’s enough for me to feel anxious and suddenly not know which to address first.

These were all little things I had to do, but I hit the proverbial wall in my brain where I stop knowing what to do and I turned off my phone to think about what I needed to do. When thinking became overwhelming, I got up and devised a plan.

These were my actionable emails:

New Italian student - wants to schedule a lesson Thursday / needs info
Current tutor student - wants lessons every night this week / needs times
New web/graphic client - gave me the green light and info to proceed on the website
New guest post - need to prep and reply and line-up for this week
Invite to write guest post - need to write and submit
Two carnivals coming up - need to select posts and submit
Accepted as a host for carnival - need to reply and schedule

This isn’t a huge amount to cope with, but in my head is also running the list of “need-tos”:

Do dishes
Do laundry
Unpack
Clean up the apartment
Write a daily blog post
Start on new website
Schedule this evening to see Sean

Somehow, this all led me to feel incredible overwhelmed. So, what did I do?

The Plan

This is how I deal with overwhelm, and how I manage my crazy life:

1. Sort all the to-dos by category. For me, this means web design, graphic design, tutoring, teaching, blogging, and home. Get them in a manageable order before you try to do anything.

2. Sort each category by priority. Each category gets a priority, and then each item in the category gets a priority too. So my students go in an order, my blog obligations, my design projects, etc.. Once they’re in order of priority, then I get to the doing.

3. Devise a schedule. I figured out what I could do today, and then made a plan for which things I would do when. I use calendars keep my dates straight, too - Google calendar for blog stuff, and iCal (on the iPhone) for everything else. I get email reminders as I need them to remind me of what’s coming up. I also figured out what I could do later - and what I didn’t need to worry about, even though it felt like a pressure-to-do.

4. Take quick action where you can. I replied to all the emails and made necessary calls. I also figured out my schedule for next week and made a rough list of what was left to do. By knocking out the small stuff so you can concentrate on the priorities, you allow yourself some time to breathe and a clear mind for working on the high priorities.

5. Get to doing! I worked as much as I needed to on the new website. Then I pulled out my calendar and added all important lessons, trips, and other events that I had scheduled earlier - with reminders scheduled to keep me in the loop (yes, my calendar is “in the know” and the alerts keep me up to speed with it ).

6. Let go. If you’ve done everything you needed to do, and now have other things to do, take a deep breath and move on. Once I worked on the new website project, replied to all the new people, and organized my time for the rest of the week, I then had time to do the rest of the things whirling around in my brain. I did the dishes, unpacked, did a load of laundry, did my makeup and edited some guest posts, and co-ordinated other blog stuff. You must let go once you’ve done all you plan to do, otherwise you’ll spend the rest of your “free time” worrying about what you’ll be doing tomorrow.

My Attitude Toward It All

Many years ago I realized that if I didn’t tackle my to-do list each day, I would always feel behind. Procrastination is for people who aren’t going anywhere. I know I’m heading down the road of success, and I have to stay on track or I could loose the trail.

Now all my blog affairs are in order, my design projects are up-to-speed, my schedule for the next two weeks is filled up and orderly, my home is clean, and I’m heading off to Sean’s for an evening completely free of work and obligations Hurrah!

If you keep a plan for how to plan your time, you’ll find you can do everything you need and want to do. I am incredibly busy, but somehow keep it all in line and get everything done. Yes, the lower priorities take a back seat sometimes, but they eventually get addressed, too. If I come to a day with “nothing to do,” i.e. nothing scheduled, I schedule that day to do all the low-priority stuff. This essentially leads me to have no days “off, but allows me to do everything.

I hope this framework helps you achieve your goals and dreams! If you need further advice, feel free to ask

Filed Under Dave Ramsey Clips, Just My Life - Stories, Etc., Organization, Random Tips, Tricks, and Advice, Self-Help and Personal Progress, money and finance

Comments

2 Responses to “How to Deal When You’re Overwhelmed”

Foxie on April 20th, 2008 8:22 pm

Just to let you know, you’ve been tagged.
Rachel @ Master Your Card on April 21st, 2008 7:36 am

What great tips. I do not often write a to do list but when I have more than 5 things to organise in a day I tend to make a quick list. This helps me to proritise and makes sure that I do not worry about forgetting any of the tasks I need to do.

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