Staring at my to-do list and my head starts spinning. How am I going to get all of this done? Why have I let so many things go undone? The overwhelm swarms over me and instead of doing even one thing on that list, I drop onto the couch, order pizza for delivery and zone out into Nailed It while guilt slowly consumes me.
Overwhelm is something I struggle with constantly. I love making lists, but a lot of times those same lists make me feel totally overwhelmed by the number of things there are to do. No matter how organized or together you feel like your life might be, there are times that things don’t get done. Everyone has dozens of what I call life admin tasks, things like: clean out the fridge, get the oil changed in the car, make that dentist appointment. These are tasks that don’t repeat all that often but they add up and are unstopping.
Currently my to-do list has about 75 things on it. When I look at all of those things, I often feel it’s hopeless and start to berate myself for being so lazy and useless. That doesn’t help the situation and just leads to a depression spiral that eats me alive.
So what do you do to handle that feeling?
First thing is to stop beating yourself up. The most important person you talk to every single day is yourself. How are you treating yourself? If you’re anything like me, you’re not real nice with your mental chatter.
Everyone has tasks they don’t get to. That to-do list is never going to be totally empty. It’s okay to have tasks on there. It’s alright if there are a lot of things to be done. Take a deep breath and forgive yourself. As much as you want to, you can’t change the past. You can’t go back and do things differently. What you can do is work on today.
Next, I find setting a timer and trying to deal with one task. A lot of times, those tasks I’ve been putting off because they seem too big, take just a few minutes. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and focus on a task. Good things for this are: responding to emails, calling to schedule an appointment of some sort, starting or folding laundry, cleaning a small area.
Focus on that task until you reach the end of it.
Now celebrate that little win.
Your entire list is like this, and that list is never going to end. You will always have things to do and problems, struggles, new things popping up, things will surprise you, you will mess up. It’s alright. You’re human and that means imperfect.
Now, how can you prioritize, figure out a system to help with managing these tasks and not forever wallowing in overwhelm?
Well, I’m going to be sharing several posts about that because that is something I struggle with a lot. I think it’s especially difficult as a creative person trying to manage general life admin tasks, day job tasks, family, friends, fun, and my creative projects all at once. It can feel like an out of control disaster a lot of the time.
I haven’t found a flawless solution. I still struggle with things (like making that damn dentist appointment) but I am slowly finding things that work, that help or that even remove some of these tasks, or at least automate them.