Dealing with overwhelm

Overwhelm

I define overwhelm as when I feel there is too much going on, and feel a general lack of focus. It can happen frequently after vacations for example, where suddenly I have a big pile of work to do.

How to identify overwhelm

For me overwhelm typically is identified by:

Feeling I don’t have time to do the

Week Planning⁠

or the daily

Task management⁠

because there is too much to do

A backlog of more than 5 items on my todo list coming from the day before

Not being able to concentrate because I have too much going on in my head

How to react to overwhelm

The main thing on dealing with overwhelm is put back the house in order and identify what is important:

Pick up a piece of paper and write everything that is going in your head - write every single project and idea that is occupying mental space

Identify the ones that are the most important, and make sure you plan for those. The other ones add your backlog of

Task management⁠

Go over your todo list and clean up your todo list to have a empty slate, go over every undue thing in your todo list

Create a simple plan for the next day, what are the 1-2 task that are simple enough to get you going - you want to build momentum. Momentum kills overwhelm.

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