Life rarely comes at us in neat little chunks. And when life is chaotic, it can breed even more chaos as we are forced to be constantly on our toes and ready to pivot. This episode is number 67, Living with Chaos.

Links from show:

• The Importance of Routines: http://gqkzq9xu.lauraearnest.com.dream.website/routines/
• What to Put In Your Morning Routines: http://gqkzq9xu.lauraearnest.com.dream.website/what-to-put-in-your-morning-routine/

Support me at Patreon: You can find all the episodes over at Patreon.

Tonight I was completely spun up, running around on a hamster wheel.

I have been doing a condiment week. I’ve been playing catchup.

A busy week that seems to have no end, task lists that keep growing, having to fight a few battles that were necessary but still took a lot out of me, little sleep, and dealing with a bunch of vendor dumpster fires. I thought I was going to implode.

So how did I get it to stop in a matter of hours?

1. I took care of the basics. I drank enough water. I walked. I ate dinner. I sat outside and watched the stars and moon for a while.

2. I relaxed. Next came a hot bath with a relaxing scented bubble bath and candles. I listened to a sound meditation.

3. I sat down with my task list and started pruning. Some tasks were deleted outright. Others were moved to the days when I would actually do them.

4. I renegotiated my schedule. I have commitments this month at church as we start our music program back up. I also serve on committees responsible for holding events. I delegated the events, and decided whether or not I wanted to sing on the day of the rehearsal. I moved tasks to another month or another day.

It’s now less than two hours after meltdown, and I feel like I am back on track. I still have to work some things in -. But it seems manageable now, and will probably be even more so after a good night’s sleep.

I’m starting to hear comparisons of how people spent their isolation time: Mr. X wrote four books. Ms. Y completed five certifications. Mr. Q revamped his entire garden. And with each of these statements comes the second part, usually unspoken: what did you do?

You know what? I think you’re doing well if you managed to come out of the last two years more or less intact.

Because I work in the productivity space, I know that people push themselves – hard – to do more, have more, be more.

And it is OK to take a break. Whether it is for a weekend, a season, or a couple of years.

My Long Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, I guess I let drop more F bombs than usual in a conversation with my programming partner. He said, “Do you need to take a mental health day?” and proceeded to assure me that he wasn’t joking around, he was seeing me fray around the edges.

I took the following Monday off. And decided that the mental health day would be a mental health weekend, where I made myself do nothing. No task lists, no shoulds, no musts, no deadlines.

It helped. Back at work, I was able to better deal with the stress of being constantly vigilant and expecting harassment attacks around every corner. (The situation has been resolved, and I thank all of you who have reached out to support me.)

It’s OK to take a break.

So What If You Did Little?

As isolation starts to close down, there is going to be more talk of what people did with the time.

And if you took that time as a break, I would hazard a guess you needed it.

Don’t worry about the super-achievers who are held up and praised for their extraordinary productivity.

If you survived with little damage, it is enough.

It’s OK to take a break.

There is so much information coming at us today. We get it from the media, internet, email, social media. We can try to escape, but as long as we have our phones, we have even more information at our fingertips.

Some of this information is very useful – the internet presents a reference like we’ve never seen before in the history of man. We have at our fingertips all the knowledge we could possibly use to accomplish just about anything.

But at the same time, some of this information is either useless or even harmful. If useless, it takes up our attention and energy. If harmful, it spurs feelings of jealousy, anger and even hatred.

All this information is overwhelming. And without deliberate management, it can cause overload, where we are no longer able to process the information coming at us.

So what can a single person do to manage the information overload coming at them?

Evaluate Quantity

The first thing to do when faced deluge is to turn it to a manageable level. You cannot drink from a fire hose.

This can be done with a some simple reflection:

• What do I listen to (podcasts, radio, etc)?
• What do I watch? (television, videos, streaming)?
• What do I read? (magazines, newspapers, blogs, news sites)?
• What apps do I use? (social media, news feeds)?
• What comes into my inbox (ads, spam, email, newsletters)?
• What comes into my mailbox (ads, letters, circulars)?

I recommend you make a list. Walk around your house, look at your commute and other down time, peruse your email inbox and trash. See how much is coming at you. (You will probably be surprised at the amount)

Evaluate Quality

Next, you need to look at the quality of information coming from each of these types of sources. Is it worthwhile? Look and see if this is the best quality information you can get in that category.

For instance, you may decide that commercial radio is not as good as a streaming service because of all the commercials. You may decide that one newspaper is better than another. You may decide that a website recommended by a colleague is full of click bait, but another one is full of better articles. You may find that you prefer one video service over another because of the quality of the videos.

Evaluate Quality to Your Life

Next, look at how this works in your life. If the information isn’t contributing in a positive way to your life, then you need to eliminate it. It’s ok to have information if it brings you something good, but things that drag you down or clutter your life are not a good way to spend your attention currency.

When I did this exercise, I discovered that the magazines I get from a professional society barely get a skim, and then get tossed. Not to mention the electronic copy they send me in email – after I have received the paper copy. And all the other emails I am getting from them for presenting at conferences and voting for various positions. Ugh. Gone. It didn’t contribute in a positive way to my professional life, and was in fact an annoyance every time I opened up my email.

I also stopped listening to the radio on my commute. Even non-commercial radio was leaving me angry, and that is no way to start a good positive work day. I switched to podcasts instead. I also stopped watching and reading the news. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s just that the spin makes me sick. Everyone I know knows I don’t read the news, so they generally let me know when something big happens.

I stopped watching over-the-air television. When I want to watch something, I use a streaming service. It cuts the ads, and also allows me to dictate the schedule when I consume.

One of my friends stopped using social media when she found that she was consumed with envy with what her friends were doing in their picture-perfect lives. After cutting out social media, she found real connections with some unexpected people, and joy in her less-than-perfect life.

Conclusion

Information today is overwhelming. If you can cut it down, you life gets more manageable (not to mention you gain a bunch of time back). When I applied this three-step formula to my own consumption I noticed that I was more peaceful, calm and happy.

What have you got to lose? Just your overwhelm. And if it doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to drinking from the fire hose.

So you’ve decided to pare down your possessions. You pull out what you no longer want, and there is a big pile of it. What now? Throwing it out seems like a waste when most of the stuff is almost unused.

I’m getting rid of a lot of stuff. It amazes me how much I have accumulated; it amazes me how much I don’t use. Yet I can’t bear to throw things out when someone else would be able to get use – and joy – out of them.

The Result of Decluttering

So far on my “tidying journey”  I have gone through clothes, books, papers and electronics. I’ve also been going through other areas of my house, even though they are not yet on the list, such as the kitchen, as I do my cleaning.

So I have a big pile of stuff. And what can I do with it all?

But Where Should It Go?

The trash is the first thing that pops into mind. And I will say this: if the item is unusable, stained, torn, broken or otherwise compromised or underwear/socks, throw it out. Don’t make a charity use its precious manpower sorting through your garbage.

But there are places for usable things to go.

Battered Women’s Shelters

My charity of choice is our local battered women’s shelter. They pick up items, keep the things they can use for those women and children landing on the doorstep, and send the rest to a thrift store.

Items my local shelter takes are clothing (women’s and children’s), household items, toys and games, school supplies and outerwear.

Our local shelter sends a truck out to pick up donations regularly and will make a special trip if I call them.

Thrift Store Donations

We have a lot of thrift stores in our area, and these are a good place to take other items. They will take everything that the battered women’s shelter does, plus just about everything else, including furniture. I have to cart everything to a donation station, but this inconvenince is offset by the people who unload the car.

Libraries

I have two different city libraries within 3 miles of me. My own city takes donations and sells the books on Amazon. So if the books are older or not of “general interest” they will be rejected. For that reason, I go to the next city over, where they accept all books and sell them at a jumble sale twice a year.

Both of the libraries will take empty CD cases as well, and we generally take a batch over once or twice a year.

The Ads

If you want to sell something, you can always take out an ad on a service like Craigslist. Please be cautious, though: don’t meet the person at your house if at all possible, never meet a buying alone, and never, ever let the people into your house. Our local police precinct allows Craigslist transactions to happen in their parking lot.

Freecycle

I am a big fan of Freecycle. You can get rid of the oddest stuff on Freecycle, even broken things that people will sell for scrap or use for parts. My local Freecycle puts the burden of picking up things on the receiver, and people tell you when they will stop by to pick up. I always leave everything on the front porch, tagged with their name, so that I am not waiting for them to pick up at a certain time.

I have gotten rid of a broken Roomba (parts), a patio table whose safety glass top had shattered (scrap), a queen mattress (taken by a salior who was geo-baching), all sorts of kitchen stuff that I had upgraded or no longer used (crockpots, breadmaker, hand blender, donut machine, deep fryer, all my bar ware).

Recycle

This doesn’t really count, but since I am a green gal, I have to put in a word for recycling. Know what your municipality will recycle, and before throwing something in the trash, see if you can recycle it. This keeps stuff out of the landfill and is an important part of being green.

A special word about electronics: most electronics can be recycled for the metals contained. Some stores off recycling, such as Best Buy. Sometimes municipalities will host an electronic recycling event. Please recycle electronics properly! It keeps harmful metals out of the environment and water, and means we don’t have to mine so much for new electronics.

Summary

Your stuff doesn’t have to go in the trash once you’re done with it. If it is in good shape, pass it on. You can find many ways to make your stuff available to others, like charities, libraries, ads and Freecycle.

Image by eelke dekker. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.

Most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it” when it comes to time off. But it can be applied in an effort to remove distraction from your life. Today we will explore five places to apply “use it or lose it” in the context of decluttering.

The Concept Behind Use It Or Lose It

Use it or lose it simply means you need to use what is hand, or it will be taken away.

If it is in reference to time off, you lose paid vacation that you have earned. Your company takes it away.

If it is in reference to stuff, it means that all things have a limited time when they can be used. You should take advantage of that time, or get rid of it.

My Decluttering Project

Near the end of 2017 I felt overwhelmed. It wasn’t just the schedule or the tasks, but also the weight of all my accumulated stuff that pressed down on me.

Stuff really does expand to fill all available space, and after 15 years in my house I have seen our level of possessions grow far too quickly.

So in January 2018 I embarked on a decluttering project. Flylady’s mantra of little at a time doesn’t work for me – long experience has shown that as I move stuff out, it just moves back in again in a different form. So I decided to give Marie Kondo’s method  a try again. I had worked her modules on clothing and books (partially) in the summer of 2016, and I had been able to maintain that leve with little effort after that.

As of the writing of this article, I have moved through clothing and books completely and I am about 3/4 of the way through papers.

Use It Or Lose It

So here is where Use It Or Lose It applies to decluttering:

“Good” stuff

I was raised by parents who grew up at the tail end of the Great Depression in rural areas further depressed by poor economies. Both of my parents had the habit of saving things “for good.” There were special dishes, a special tea set, special clothes, special perfume, special jewelry. I absorbed this attitude and brought it with me unknowing into my own adulthood.

But things that aren’t used are just being hoarded. Too many people die with their things saved “for good” untouched.

So as I go through my things, I am aware of things that have that “for good” label attached. If they are not in regular use, then they are sent on their way to someone who will use them.

And that includes the “good” china – we are now using the dining room more frequently with those dishes.

If you’re not using something special, is it really all that special? Either get it into regular use, or let it go to someone who will use them.

Knowledge

Most specialized knowledge is not evergreen. Things that you learned in school, unless they are foundational things like math, have a limited application. They go out of date as things expire.

So as I went through our books, I looked at all my school books. Only those that had evergreen content (like linear algebra, basic algorithms, trig) were allowed to stay – and then only if I had needed the book in the past two years. Same with the books from my husbands master’s degree – all those books on the political climate of early century now are out of date.

If the knowledge is either out of date or not being used, pass it on to someone who can learn from it.

Clothing

Too many people hang on to a variety of sizes of clothing in their closet. They hope they will get back into that size again one day. And they very well might do it.

However by that time, those clothes that are hanging in the closet will be out of date.

If you’re not using the clothes, pass them on to someone who might use them before they go out of date.

Notes

I had gotten rid of all my class notes (or so I thought) a few years ago. But as I was going through my papers, I found all of the handouts and notes I had taken when I was pursuing my teaching license. Very little of the material was useful when I was teaching (because when you are “on” in front of a class, you can’t refer to a pile of notes for alternate methods); and it is of no use now that I have left education for IT.

Same with old notebooks. I ran across a few old journals that I skimmed through and promptly ripped apart and recycled. I will never use them again, and I certainly don’t want anyone else to use them either.

If you have notes that you haven’t looked at in six months or more, you’re not using it. And since they will probably be of no use to anyone else, go ahead and lose them to the recycling bin.

Manuals

Another legacy from my parents is that when you buy something, you need to hang on to all the instructions and warranties. I guess that made sense in an era where things were meant to last and papers were not easily replaced, e.g. before the Internet.

So having absorbed that attitude I tucked all the warranties and papers into five magazine holders in my closet. I had a task on my task list for almost three years to go through them and organize them. With Marie Kondo, though, I pulled it all out and started pitching things. It turns out I didn’t need to organize them. I needed to purge these papers that hadn’t been looked at in years. I ended up with five items – one to pass on to a co-worker for a device I had gifted him, three sets of instructions for cleaning items that are infrequently cleaned, and one receipt for paying a traffic ticket for expired tags.

Some of my manuals live in my cookbook place. And I use them because they tell me how to use the appliance to the best advantage. But anything else hadn’t been used since the days they were shoved into the files.

If you’re not referring to those manuals, lose them into recycling.

Memorabilia

One of the habits I ingrained when I first tackled simplifying my life (back in the early 2000’s) was that I don’t buy souvenirs that don’t have a purpose.

So rather than buying a fridge magnet at South of the Border, I bought a can coolie, which I use every time I drink soda. Instead of buying mouse ears at Disneyworld, I bought earrings. On a trip to Montreal, instead of a mug, I bought an umbrella (which was also useful at the time). Instead of buying an I Heart NY magnet or mug or sticker, I got myself an M&M blanket, which sits in my chilly writing studio.

None of these things have the typical souvenir branding; they just remind me of the trip when I use them.

Sadly, most houses I visit have memorabilia all over the place. It’s not useful stuff, it’s just collections displayed on shelves and horizontal surfaces. It doesn’t get used, it just sits and collects dust.

Most people don’t enjoy dusting. So why keep things that collect dust? If the memories are so important, take a picture of the item before you get rid of it.

Summary

If you are not using something, then all it is doing is taking up space in your environment and mind. If you are trying to lighten up (physically and mentally) and are decluttering, look at each item and ask if you are using it. If you are not, either start using it or get rid of it.

Have you ever looked at your schedule and just wanted to hide? Today I will give you the 4 step process I used to cut back on an overwhelming schedule.

Feeling Overwhelmed

I look back at what I was able to do 15 years ago when my daughter was an infant, and it always seems like I was able to do more. At that point I was running three blogs with an article each day. In fact, I was able to do more. Which is fine, except that I expect myself to be able to do the same amount now, even though my circumstances are different. I use this vague need to do the same amount as a basis to add more to my schedule, and I end up overwhelmed.

So this is not in my imagination – this is a real consequence of an expectation that is not realistic. Yes, I was able to do more 15 years ago. At that point I had a condo, rather than a house, with smaller square footage to maintain and no outdoor tasks. There was no dog. There was one cat. There was an infant whose nanny came to the house every day. I didn’t have the music commitments I do now. I didn’t have Girl Scouts or novel writing. While I was working more hours, I was able to do a lot of writing at my job since I had so much down time.

Fast forward to today, I’ve tried to force myself into that same schedule but my commitment level has changed drastically.

Letting Go Of The “Should”

The reason I get overwhelmed is purely internal, and it’s two-fold. On the one hand I tell myself that I did it once, I should be able to do it again. So I allow myself to pile on more writing work, trying to match the level I did 15 years ago.

On the other hand, I recognize that my commitments have changed, and my daughter no longer needs my full attention all the time. I tell myself that I should be able to do more, since I don’t have that demand on me. And I pile out outside commitments, not realizing that she still needs me, only slightly less and very different ways. For instance, as an infant, I could write while she napped. Today, I can’t work while I am helping her with pre-calculus.

It’s very different.

Step 1: Assessing the Current Schedule

So something has to give. I’m going to walk you through the process, using r steps to cut back on the overwhelming schedule. It starts with looking at the monster it had become.

I listed out all of the things that took up my time, even if they weren’t on my calendar.

• Work. While I officially work 30 hours a week, I still go to a client site every day. My current client doesn’t have any down time, so the 2-3 hours a day I used to use for writing and other projects has vanished. My hours have been creeping up as well, and sometimes I am closer to 40 than 30.
• Work Extracurricular. My company is big on “seasoned” consultants sharing their knowledge with the fresh-out-of-college employees. This generally amounts to one to two evenings a month, not including any company meetings (which are held after hours so as not to interfere with our client work).
• Home maintenance. I currently have a four bedroom house with formal and informal rooms. The square footage has more than doubled since my days in the condo, and we live on a 1/3 acre that requires maintenance to ensure we are not overrun by any of the six different types of invasive vines coming at us from the adjacent city wetlands/woodlands. I am now also cooking for three, trying to show by example what healthy meals look like (this requires far more effort than throwing a frozen pizza into the oven)
• Choir. While I am still in the same choir, our rehearsals have grown from 1.5 hours every week to over 2.
• Small Music Groups. In addition to the choir work, I am currently part of three other vocal/musical groups. These add at least another hour onto the rehearsal time each week.
• Fiction Writing I have always wanted to write a book, and NaNoWriMo has provided me the help to get moving on it. Now I am trying to make the fiction writing a year-round thing instead of a single month so that I don’t acquire any more unfinished books.
• Blogging. I now run three blogs – two private and this one. One has two articles a week, with one being a quote. One is pictures so that my mother can be more in touch (because we are not going to show my mother how to use Facebook. And then there is this blog, producing 2-3 articles a week. This is more consuming than it was 15 years ago, since I am now writing more in-depth articles (instead of software reviews) and having to do things like SEO and list building.
• Girl Scouts. I dissolved my troop this past fall and I am now working with four girls as independent scouts. It’s more along the lines of I’m working with my daughter and the other three can tag along. Gone are the paperwork, checking account and crafts; but I am now having to navigate four girls through the Gold Award process. Gone are the days when I can wing a meeting.
• Other volunteer commitments. I administer websites for two groups that I work with. One of them requires a daily effort, the other a larger effort once or twice a month. I am also the coordinator for a church group that meets every month and then an additional eight times a year for seminars.

So those are my current commitments. Here’s what I did to get them down to more manageable levels.

Step 2: Wholesale Abandonment

Sometimes it is just necessary to abandon something that doesn’t have a positive return on investment. After looking at all the activities, I was able to jettison a few:

• Work extracurricular. While I understand my company’s desire to capitalize on my experience, I get nothing out of it. I have been very vocal about the need to have better agenda items to attract people to these meetings – if that should happen I might consider going as a one-off if there is something interesting. I’ve also decided to only attend two of the after-hours quarterly meetings a year.
• Small musical group. I’ve bowed out of one of the small musical groups, since I really wasn’t enjoying the music or working with the other performers.
• Church Group. Given lack of attendance, we cancelled the monthly meetings. It wasn’t giving us any return on my effort.

Step 3: Commitment Deferral

Sometimes you can put a commitment off until a later date. This will free up the schedule for a while, but it will have to be looked at again when things come into play. This is useful when there is still a positive return on time investment, but when that investment is lower than other tasks.

• Small music groups. One of these has been pushed out until May, and fall commitments will be limited to two.
• Church group. Since two of my co-leaders have been heavily involved with the move to the new building, we have deferred all seminars until next fall, when I can get help with them.
• Novel. I took December off in order to deal with the heavy musical commitments during that month.

Step 4: Commitment Modification

Commitment modifications can be everything from scaling back to re-negotiating the terms of the commitment – even if the re-negotiation is with yourself.

• Housework. I have asked my husband to do the cooking twice a week. I have set theme days for the cooking so I am not scrambling to find recipes. I have also limited myself to trying only one new recipe a week (this takes a lot of pressure off). I have  modified my cleaning lists from the Flylady era to work with my house and my level of cleanliness. These are now in my task list along with all of my other tasks. Our garden beds have been filled with stone, which keeps the weeds down.
• Fiction Writing. Instead of going at the break-neck pace to get 50,000 words every month, I have backed it down to 6,000 words per week. This gives me days when I am free of writing, and is still moves me forward at a good clip.
• Blogging. The picture blog has gone down to twice a month. My other personal blog has all the quotes set up for the year. My process for producing posts for this blog has also changed and streamlined.
• Girl Scouts. One of the reasons I dissolved the troop was the constant scheduling headaches, coordinating 8 girls at 7 different high schools. Now I set the meetings to work for my daughter and me, and the girls can come or not. I have also determined that we won’t be doing door-to-door cookies sales, but only what I can provide to my co-workers.

Making Sure It Doesn’t Happen Again

So now my schedule is less full. I’ve removed what I can, with very specific reasons.

However, until I make sure that I have shifted my mental processes as well, I am still in danger of going back.

I have to let go of the guilt of feeling like I am letting my scouts down. I have to let go of feeling like I need to be Suzy Homemaker when it comes to meals and cleaning. I have to let go of saying yes when someone asks me to do something. I have to push back when someone asks me to do something within my commitments and it doesn’t work right then. I have to let go of my all-or-nothing attitude to writing fiction.

Goodbye guilt.

Goodbye perfectionism.

Goodbye people-pleasing.

Goodbye all-or-nothing thinking.

Once I can let go of those things, my schedule has a fighting chance of staying uncluttered.

Summary

To get out of overwhelm, you can take a 4 step process. Assess your current commitments, drop some commitments, scale back others, and modify what is left.

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Image by MrsTG. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.

One of the paradoxes of productivity is that the busier one is, the more one needs to do the right things. However, since one is busy, one doesn’t have the time to figure out what the right things are.

Scary, isn’t it?

You could desperately need to pull yourself out of the cyclone of doing one task after another, to figure out what is going to be best to do, and yet you are too busy to do it.

Taking time to breathe (metaphorically) is the only solution to this paradox.

When you take time to breathe, you can have the mental space to figure out if what you are doing is the best use of your time.

When you take time to breathe, you can see if the path you are on will take you where you want to go.

I listened to A TED Radio hour on quiet today, and one of the speakers mentioned that if a doctor told you to get exercise, you would sign up for a class. But taking time to be quiet and reflect is usually met with “I don’t have time for that.”

If you don’t have time to be quiet, how else will you know where you are, or where you are headed? Course corrections are best when they are done in small increments. It is easier to change careers by making small changes in your current job when you don’t have a lot invested – it’s much harder when you want to switch over after having been in a job you hate for 20 years.

Interestingly, I just finished reading a book that I hoped would help me find more time: Fringe Hours. I was sadly disappointed. So disappointed that I am not even going to provide a link to the book.

What had been touted as a productivity book designed to help me find more time to breathe and do self-care turned into a book that tried to provoke guilt (in a chapter on guilt) and had far too many references to the author’s faith. Not that I have any objection to her faith…it’s just I believe productivity is and should remain, an agnostic subject. I don’t believe that having a relationship with any diety is going to give me any more hours in the day.

So how do you find time to breathe? Time to consider, pause, reflect and plan?

For me, the only way I can do this is if I am physically alone.

I am not a morning person, but during the week I get up at 6 to drink that first cup of coffee and plan out the day. On Sunday mornings I hit my computer before the others are awake, usually 8, and plan out the week. When my first alarm goes off in the morning, I spend the time until the snooze goes off focusing on my breathing. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I go back to sleep.

It’s not enough. I’m looking for ways to work in more space. More time to plan, dream, reflect…and just be.

I don’t have answers here, just observations. I would love to hear how you make time in your day or week just to reflect and look forward. Share below, or email me directly at laura@lauraearnest.com.

Image by shawnzrossi. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.

Productivity is not just a matter of doing. There is a significant amount of mental effort involved as well – and this often is overlooked.

Overwhelm, the feeling of drowning in commitments, can be tackled both by doing things as well as changing your mindset. Today we look at 5 things you can think to combat overwhelm.

The Mental Component

If your head isn’t in the game, it doesn’t really matter how well prepared your body is.

Productivity is not just about doing things – it’s also about the mental component that allows you to sift through, decide and work on things.

Conversely, if you are overwhelmed, you have to deal with the mental part of it. Getting your head back in the game is just as important as whittling down that pile of tasks waiting for you.

5 Things You Can Change In Your Thinking

Here are five things you can change in your thinking to help with overwhelm:

1. Understand that you can’t have and do it all.

Often our minds think we can do more than we can. Knowing that you are limited gives you an edge in combatting overwhelm. You can’t do and have it all, so don’t try.

Instead, decide what is truly important to you, and let the rest go.

2. Stop thinking you need to know more.

The quest for knowledge before embarking on a task can add to overwhelm quickly. We feel paralyzed because we don’t think we have enough know-how to do the task, and we don’t know how much more we need to know.

This attitude is just a sanctioned form of procrastination. As Mary DeRosa Hughes said, “by telling myself I’m not qualified yet, I am absolving myself of having to take action.”

Go with what you know.

3. Have faith.

You will never find on this blog instructions to pray or read holy texts or get close to your god. I walk a non-traditional spiritual path and I am intensely private about it.

That being said, no matter what your beliefs or none, you can still have faith that what you need to know and do will come to you at the right time.

I believe that youI don’t have to search for more information; what you need to do you can do right now with the tools and knowledge you have. If you don’t truly have the tools and knowledge, then it is either not your task, or it is not the right time.

4. Know you don’t have to do it perfectly

As a person who has more than a little perfectionist tendency, I can get caught up in wanting to do things perfectly, and therefore never starting. This leaves tasks on the list until they snowball into an avalanche.

Instead, knowing that nothing is irreversible except those decisions that involve death, I can move forward knowing I can adjust, re-do, edit or whatever.

As my current iPad wallpaper reminds me: “A crappy first draft is worth more than a non-existent one.”

5. Eliminate mental distractions.

There are hundreds of tips on the interwebs about how to eliminate distractions and get to work. Yet very few of them include techniques on how to remove mental distractions. Removing mental distractions is harder than physical ones – you can’t just move into a different space or pop on headphones to get rid of those thoughts careening in your head.

6. Go for the small wins

I know I promised 5 ways, but consider this a bonus and a testament to my fight against productivity.

One of the quickest ways to get moving on a lot of tasks is to go for the low-hanging fruit. We talked about this last time, but it’s not just about clearing space on your list. Getting rid of a bunch of small tasks gives you the “win” mentality that will buoy you through more tasks.

I’ve heard that Dave Ramsey doesn’t advocate clearing away debt by tackling the highest interest rate one first – but rather the one with the lowest balanace, just for this reason.

Never underestimate the power of small victories.

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Productivity is a mental game too. By knowing you can’t do it all, going with the knowledge you have, letting go of perfection, eliminating mental distractions and going for the small wins, you can get your head back in the game and away from the overwhelm.

Image by sgillies. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.

Productivity is as much a mental game as it is about the tasks you do. This week we’ll be looking at overwhelm, and today we’ll look at the external factors.

Signs of Overwhelm

Overwhelm is that feeling when you have a ton of things to do – and can’t decide where to start, what order to do things, or even what to do. You might start many things, or just throw your hands in the air and then take a nap. Or you might grit your teeth and try to get through all of the tasks, which is too much, or you wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

There are a couple things you need to know about overwhelm:

Overwhelm is different for different people. The level of tasks one person can take on might overwhelm another.

Overwhelm is different for the same person at different times. Overwhelm is faster to set in when you are already stressed.

Getting through overwhelm is not just about getting to work. This is as much mental as it is physical.

Things You Can DO To Combat Overwhelm

So what can you do? Recognize it, and then apply some strategies (for the mental strategies, tune into the next article).

1. Make a list

Often things seem overwhelming because we don’t have a good sense of what is really out there. If you can write down everything in one place, you can see it all at once…and decide what to do.

2. Set a limit

Don’t try to tackle it all. The truth is no one dies with an empty task list. So don’t try to outsmart them. Decide what you can do in a very specific time frame, say 15 minutes. And then get to work. When the 15 minutes is done, stop, and assess what you’ve done.

Make sure you don’t push yourself beyond the 15 minutes. Take a break, and then do another 15 minutes. But don’t force yourself into a marathon, or it will backfire.

3. Go for the low-hanging fruit

We can feel overwhelmed when there is a lot of little stuff hanging around to get done. If you see that there are five easy tasks on your list, knock them out. Go from one to the other without stopping. This will clear up a good chunk of your list, and give you some more space.

(If there are more than five, take a short break, and then knock the rest out.)

4. Let a task go

(Cue music…) “Let it go, let it go, turn away and slam the door…” Ahem.

Sorry for the Disney moment there, but Elsa’s song is applicable. Look for anything on the list that is part of a routine that will come around again. That’s one of the beauties of repeating tasks – they come around again and you can catch them on the next round. Let those tasks go and free up the list.

5. Rest

If you are overwhelmed, you are experiencing stress. That means you need additional rest. And as counter-intuitive as it sounds, taking a real break will make the number of tasks seem more do-able.

Five easy things to help combat overwhelm. Make a list; then get the easy stuff done, let go of routine tasks that will come around again, and tackle the rest in small increments. And don’t forget to rest!

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Image by Mark Morgan Trinidad B. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.