Feeling overwhelmed with work and personal tasks is one of the biggest problems that the people I work with are facing.
It turns out, our lives can be pretty overwhelming.
There’s so much to do, never enough time to do it, and who knows what we should be focusing on? We’re always behind, barely treading water. That’s our usual experience of life, it seems.
What can we do? It turns out, there are some powerful things we can practice with overwhelm, and there are some practical things we can do as well.
What follows is meant to be a kind of survival guide — not only how to survive your overwhelming life, but how to turn it into a life of joy and impact.
There are a lot of things below, which ironically can be overwhelming. Pick one, and try it.
The first thing to do when we’re facing overwhelm is first aid — it’s not meant to be a final solution, just what we need to do to start out.
Here are the steps I recommend:
At the end of the day, take 20 minutes and do the following:
OK, those are the practical steps to get started. Let’s talk about longer-term practical tips, then mindset tips.
These are some of the longer-term ways I’ve found to simplify my work life:
You obviously don’t have to work on all of these today. But implementing one of these each week will lead to a longer-term reduction of overwhelm.
The feeling of overwhelm can lead to a lack of focus — how can you focus on one thing when you feel pulled in a thousand directions?
The practice here is to find focus in the middle of chaos. And it’s a beautiful practice.
It goes something like this:
I like to think of it as the same as focusing on one breath at a time in meditation. You have a lot of breaths to take in your lifetime, but you can’t take them all right now. So just take one breath, and fully take that breath. That’s the only breath happening right now, and the rest will come in time.
Finally, what if we could transform overwhelm into something powerful?
This is a mindset shift that you can take on as a practice, so that overwhelm doesn’t have to be a big deal, but instead becomes an opportunity to find play, focus, commitment, joy, or curiosity.
The shift is in how you relate to your tasks.
When we’re feeling overwhelm, it’s because we relate to tasks as a burden or a chance to let others down or fail or look foolish (or something similar). If we relate to our tasks this way, then the more tasks we have, the more stressful and burdensome things will be. If we have two tasks, that’s not too bad, but having a hundred chances to fail is super stressful!
What if, instead, we viewed the tasks as an opportunity to practice focus and to be present? An opportunity to serve and add value? An opportunity to play and be curious? A place to find joy and transcendent experience?
If we viewed our tasks this way, then more tasks will only light us up even more!
Here’s how to practice:
If you relate to your tasks as an opportunity for play, joy and adventure, what a fun day you’ll have! If you relate to them as a way to serve, with love and focus, what a beautiful day that would be.
How would you like to relate to your tasks, that will bring you alive?
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Simplifying Our Mental View
Transformation,
One Change at a Time
Open to Something
Meaningful
Cultivate Deep Focus
in the Face of Resistance
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