Feeling Overwhelmed?

Do you feel overwhelmed right now? It’s easy with our careers and personal obligations, to feel overwhelmed, like everything is unmanageable and never going to get done. We can feel inundated with tasks, thoughts, or emotions to the point where it feels impossible to cope. It can feel debilitating. As a professional, it’s important to learn how to manage overwhelm so you can grow in your career and as a leader. Typically, responsibilities grow in your career, rather than lessen. Fortunately, there are several strategies that you can use to reduce overwhelm. Start with one action at a time.

1.      Refresh your mindset: you can control your thoughts, emotions, and actions with practice. You control what you say yes and no to. You control, it may not feel like it sometimes, how you manage your day. There are beliefs that may get in the way. You may believe that you can’t ask for a later deadline. You may believe that you can’t ask for help. You may believe that you’re not capable of getting it all done. Yet, if you believe the opposite, that everything is possible, with prioritization, resources, flexibility, and a little creativity, you can shift your mindset to “I’ve got this!”

2.      Change the habit: you may not want to hear this, but feelings of overwhelm can become a habit. When a cue/trigger happens we instantly think “I’m overwhelmed” and then our behaviors and consequence follow. If we can change the thought to, “wow, one more request. Let me see if it fits in my calendar” or something slightly different than overwhelm, we can gradually shift our reactions and our behaviors. How would you like to reconstruct the habit? Here’s the design: Cue/trigger + thought/belief + behavior + reward/consequence.

3.      Prioritize self-care: get your sleep, exercise regularly, drink water, eat healthy, connect with people, and enjoy your hobbies. Self-care provides the foundation by which everything else builds upon. It may be easy for me to say, “do this,” but when feeling overwhelmed it may feel impossible to do all of this. Start with one thing. What’s one thing you can do to shift in a more positive direction?

4.      Self-awareness: be aware of your emotions. How are you feeling? Name it. What triggers you to feel overwhelmed? What do you want to be feeling instead? It can be boiled down to what’s your mindset, what’s your vision, and what’s the intentional action you want to take to get there? By being aware of your feelings, you can choose how you act. For example, you can have the feeling (i.e. overwhelm), become aware (i.e. when my manager asks for presentations due in one day it overwhelms me), pause, take a breath, and choose how you want to act (i.e. assess how much time the effort will take and express the impact to other work, if applicable, re-prioritize if needed, etc.). With practice, the self-awareness will lead to more choices.

5.      Practice mindfulness: whether it’s deep breathing, meditation, or “resetting” to be in the present moment, mindfulness can help to stay centered.

6.      Scope it out: write down all the big things on your mind like projects, initiatives, parties, carpools, etc. Get it all down on paper or digitally. A total brain dump; it helps to unload.

7.      Understand your why and prioritize: why are each of these things important to you? What’s their importance to others? If they’re not important, do you need to be doing them? You can stop doing them or delegate, where appropriate. For those items that are important, what’s the priority? Knowing your why and the relative priority can keep you grounded, keep you motivated, and help with decision making.

8.      Map out the key milestones: what are the key milestones for each item? Put them on the calendar and block time to complete the supporting steps to achieve the milestones. Block time for any key tasks supporting the milestones. Seeing it on the calendar brings reality to whether there is or is not time to do it all. If there’s not enough time, consider re-prioritizing.

9.      Create a master to-do list: list out your key tasks/actions, likely the next task for each key item, in one central location so you can refer to the master list daily. Each day, choose 3-5 actions to focus on; write them in a separate, visible place. A post-it note, on a whiteboard, or some other visible format. If you complete those, re-visit your master list. Having your tasks out of your head and written down lessens the anxiety over needing to remember everything.

10.   Set micro-goals: what goals are important to you personally and professionally to achieve in the short term? Write these down, make them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) and block any milestones on your calendar. Being clear on what your goals are, for you, helps to stay engaged and not feel like you’re doing things for everyone but yourself.

11.   Institute weekly reviews: reflect on the week, how did you do against your to-do list, progress against micro-goals, and key milestones - keep a positive lens. Plan for the upcoming week by adjusting your calendar to align to your priority work. Prioritize and refresh your master to-do list. Create a view of the upcoming week and cultivate a belief that it’s possible to get it all done.

12.   Establish routines: set aside time for work, family, friends, health, hobbies, relaxation to help maintain balance. You can also create a habit/routine for handling new requests to see if they fit within your allocated times, establishing boundaries for yourself. Create routines for certain tasks throughout the day that will serve you. Examples: when you first sit down at your desk, write your 3-5 actions down. End every meeting 5 minutes early so you can stand, get a glass of water. Listen to your favorite book or podcast while in the car. At the end of each day, write down all tasks on your master to-do list, look at your calendar for the next day, and slot in time to get high priority work done. Build routines that work for you.

13.   Take breaks: it’s important to get regular breaks throughout the day to pause, refresh, and reset. Take 5 minutes to walk around, breathe in some fresh air or to stretch. Take 5 minutes to get a glass of water and do some push-ups.

14.   Gratitude practice: take a moment each day to reflect on what you’re grateful for or write it down in your journal. This can shift your perspective and help to reduce the feelings of overwhelm. I personally like to reflect on what I'm grateful for as I fall asleep, thinking I'm grateful for x, y, z.... and doze off to sweet dreams.

15.   Seek support: reach out to friends, family, therapists, coaches, colleagues and share what you’re feeling. Ask for specific help when appropriate, such as helping with work projects or with personal obligations.

16.   Celebrate the wins: as you complete different tasks or projects, or achieve a milestone, celebrate in a way that’s meaningful to you. Acknowledge the team members that helped you. Treat yourself to a walk outside, listen to a new album, or something that you’d appreciate. Just celebrate!

By providing 16 strategies, that may add to overwhelm, so I want to re-emphasize that starting with one action at a time and then building will help you gradually shift your overwhelm to “I’ve got this” with prioritization, resources, flexibility, and a little creativity.

If you’d like to dive deeper, join me for one of my career coaching workshops: https://www.viewpointcoachingandconsulting.com/new-workshops

Coach Brieanne 

#careercoaching #neurodivergentcoaching #overwhelm #adhdcoaching