3 Ways to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed

Feeling overwhelmed is so stressful. It's like you have a mountain to climb, you can't see the summit, and you don't even know where the path is. It's a place that you want to get out of quickly!

In this post, I share three ways to stop overwhelm and get back on track.

In today's society it's easy to get overwhelmed. The barrage of e-mails, texts, and other demands create a false sense that everything is urgent all at once.

When this happens, our brains get confused and have trouble deciding what to do next. So we get overwhelmed. We freeze up or freak out.

The solution? Reset, prioritize, and bite-sized. Read on...

Your first step, and number one strategy is to reset. When you’re overwhelmed, your brain’s “circuits” are overloaded, so you need to cool them down. You're not going to be efficient if you keep plugging away at your tasks.

So take a break. 5 to 15 minutes is all you need to reset. Take a walk, walk up and down some stairs, do something completely different, then come back to what you need to do.

Unfortunately, the myth of multitasking persists. Doing ten things at once is not efficient. In fact, it can lead to overwhelm.

So, your second strategy is to prioritize. Look at what you have to do, then circle your number one priority. Choose the thing that absolutely must get done.

Let all the other stuff drop away for the moment. Focusing on the most urgent task helps steer you out of the fog of overwhelm.

The third thing you can do is what I call bite-sized. What I mean by this is taking little nibbles, bites, or small steps toward the thing that you need to get done.

Don't think about the outcome. Think about the step that's right in front of you and focus on that. Just like you don't eat an entire dinner in one mouthful, you need to think bite-sized.

Our jobs, the media, and society at-large encourage taking on more than we should. But you're in control.

Use the strategies: reset, prioritize, bite-sized. Remember, they work best in that order. You can also try each strategy on its own. Whatever works for you!

I also have a bonus strategy. It’s called pre-crastination. It’s another way to get out of overwhelm, and get stuff done. Read all about it right here.