
Breathe. Way too often the big complaint is the crazy feeling of we all have of our daily overwhelm. I get it. Sometimes, okay, most of the time, life has a lot going on and you’re in a tailspin. Especially during times of stress. Well, it’s time to stop the tailspin and triumph over the daily overwhelm. I know how to do it and I’m going to lay it out below!
Planning.
I was on a call the other day with this smart tech guy who asked me to respond to his email so that he could put what he offered to do for me onto his To-Do list. I laughed! He didn’t have any paper nearby nor a pen. He was in a paperless office.
Which is cool. I get that we’re supposed to save trees and cut back on paper. But what I don’t understand is how a professional needs me to remind him to do what he’s offered to do. Talk about living in a tailspin! It simply feels like twice the amount of work and a lot more daily overwhelm.
It feels as if the tailspin and daily overwhelm are caused by making more work for ourselves.
In an age where streamlining and simplifying our lives to conquer the daily overwhelm are the goal, it seems somewhat ridiculous that things are twice as complicated. This shows up everywhere as an older generation struggles to learn the intricacies of tech and a younger generation forgets how to hold a pencil and write on a piece of paper. Things are complicated. And as a result, we’ve become overly stressed out.
In order to overcome the tailspin and the daily overwhelm, I suggest a few basic things to bring back into your life. And it begins with simply making a plan. For the month, the week, and frankly, for the day.
Don’t let the concept of planning for your day overwhelm you more – it will help!
To start, I want to keep this simple. I’m certain you’ve got a ton on your mind. So begin by writing down all of it… everything you’re thinking about. And, for goodness sake, use a piece of paper and a pen! (Or the back of an envelope if you still get snail mail.) Your daily overwhelm demands a little attention!
You can also write on the back of used sheets of paper – that’s what I do – sheets of paper are all over my desk and office which I then tear up and recycle in the recycling bin. (Doing my part to recycle the white stuff rather than simply put it into landfill.) I find by recycling, I triumph over the trash!
But what I’ve noticed with clients is that without taking the time to sit and think, and doing a little, teeny bit of planning, on a daily basis, it can all get super overwhelming. I know that I can go into a tailspin and then my stress levels go up. No one wants that. So I’d like you to download what’s on your mind.
Be careful not to begin to think too big. Too out there. Maddeningly out there. Do you know what I mean?
Ask yourself what’s on your mind. Then, write down everything. If you can or if you need to, use many pieces of paper (and if you need that keyboard, do this thinking work in a writing app!) Sort out where things go. For example, categorize if you can: family, home, self, friends, school, kids, etc.
This is important. Once you’ve got the items on your mind categorized, there’ll be a little more clarity rather than just one big mish-mash of daily overwhelm!
The next part is about taking action – you’ll need to break things down into steps.
We never accomplish any goal in one fell swoop. It’s usually made up of many steps. So you’re going to need to break things down into steps. We can do small steps. In fact, the bigger the goal, the more steps there are to accomplishing it.
Daily overwhelm is overcome by taking small steps. This is how you triu mph!
Once you’ve got your categories, goals and small steps, circle what you can DO today. Just today. Not the entire goal… I can’t move into a new home today until I’ve searched where I want to live, figured out how much I can afford, hired an agent to help me, gone to open houses, put in an offer, negotiated the deal, closed on it, and planned the move in date.
When we accomplish the small steps, we feel a sense of triumph over the usual daily overwhelm.
We also feel a sense of accomplishment no matter how many goals we have to handle. I know this because I’ve always got a lot going on. And, I also keep things going in the right direction. I triumph over my daily overwhelm by thinking and planning on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. I create (on paper so I can touch, see and feel it) a daily To-Do list. With small action-oriented steps. Things I can easily accomplish. And then
Got it? I teach an entire course on this… super fun. Super easy. But, you will need to use a pen at least. You can find the link here!