How to Deal with Overwhelm
Despite the calm I may portray as a Pilates & Yoga Studio owner, here in sunny Newton Abbot South Devon I still get ‘overwhelm’. Overwhelm is something that all business owners suffer at one point or another. Whether that’s on a daily basis, weekly, monthly or yearly.
For me personally it’s usually when I have lots of different projects on the go and there’s just so much to do.
But actually when I get into that state of mind I actually end up doing NOTHING!
And then I get frustrated, annoyed and worried that I’m not doing anything! So one night I think it must have been about 2am and I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. (Now let’s make it clear, this was not worry over money matters, just that there was lots and lots of different things to think on and over). I had the same thoughts running through my mind over and over again.
“Where do I start?”
“What do I need to do?”
“There’s so much to do”
“How am I ever going to get it done?”
“I’m never going to reach the end of this?”
Eventually I decided to get up and I went to the office and grabbed some blank paper and i went and climbed into the spare bed.
The following exercise is now a regular ritual for me whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed and it does almost instantly make me feel better and like I can breath and everything seems much more organised and achievable.
How to Tackle Overwhelm – Let’s get going!
1. Grab a blank piece of paper and write down EVERYTHING that is on your mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s work related, personal, dreams, bills to pay etc. Just have a brain dump onto the paper (or 2 or 3!).
2. Now highlight all the tasks that are the same. I usually do it in terms of “computer work” so anything that needs to be done on a computer that I can do together will go as one colour. Do you have chores that need doing like shopping or going to several different shops etc So divide it into categories that suit your list.
3. Now write the categories onto separate paper so each paper will have one category and transfer all the items onto the new sheets
4. Now you have your different lists you can start to allocate time in the coming week to complete them. I often find I write some stuff down and then realise actually that’s not something I need to do or maybe something else needs to be completed before you can do that so take it off the list.
Job Done! This is so simple and often once I have completed this exercise I feel really SMUG like “I BEAT YOU OVERWHELM!”
For me personally it’s a great way to take action when you don’t know what action to take and as soon as I do this exercise I find that my mojo comes back and I can get a lot on my list done in no time.
All it needed was a little bit of planning and time dedication:)
I hope this helps you. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a business owner. Maybe you’re a mum or dad struggling to do all the things around the house, run the family, sort the kids and do whatever else. This will still work for you 🙂
Lots of love from Newton Abbot Devon
Tanja xxx
St Marychurch Road, (next to Plant World)
Newton Abbot
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