Stop Feeling Overwhelmed With These 7 Steps

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How do you feel when you have a million things to do in your day? Do you feel anxious, stressed, overwhelmed? And how often do you feel this way? I’m guessing it happens quite often and you would like to have more control over your life. Am I right?

Far too many of us struggle with our overwhelming lives. We have so much going on at any given moment that it’s amazing we make it through the day.

But you’re tired of it, you want a better life, a life that you love, that doesn’t feel so demanding.

Is that life possible? It absolutely is if you let it happen. Just follow these next few steps to stop living a life of overwhelm. It is possible if you try.

This post may have affiliate links. This means I may earn a commission should you choose to make a purchase using my link.

7 Steps to Stop Overwhelm

Brain Dump

When you feel overwhelmed (even if it’s right now), pause for a moment, grab some paper or your phone and write down everything that’s on your mind. Things that need to get done today, this week, in the future. Things that didn’t get done but are now overdue. Anything weighing on you. Thoughts that are bothering you. Get it all out.

So many times when you feel overwhelmed, it’s because of the mess in your head. Getting it out will help you feel so much more in control. I’m sure of it. The thoughts, regrets, and craziness in your mind could be clouding your judgment so getting it all out of your head will diminish any anxiety you feel. Knowing that it’s all jotted down will bring you comfort. Your fear of forgetting something important can be let go of.

I prefer to write everything down on paper but if I’m short on time, I’ll go to my Brain Dump board on Trello and get all the thoughts and ideas out of my head. No matter how I do it, it’s freeing when I clear my mind.

Make a Plan

Once you know everything that needs to get done, you can start making a plan to tackle it.

To do this, you’ll want to create three lists because you’ll have different priorities within your brain dump list. For example, if getting a haircut and finishing a project for work that’s due tomorrow are both on your list, they won’t have equal importance.

For your three lists, you’ll want to recognize what’s a priority (what needs to get done now or today), what should get done (what would be nice to get done today but not important), and what can wait. Always start with your priorities as these are your important tasks (and possibly urgent). Don’t be tempted to start either of the other lists until this is finished.

By making a plan, you’ll be able to see what needs to get done now and what can wait. When it’s one giant list, you can’t see it this way and you might be doing things that aren’t as important as others just because you’re trying to do everything at once. You also may be doing the fun things first and not the important things because you may tend to focus on those first without a clear plan.

Related: How to be Productive When You Feel Stuck

Put Up Your Blinders

So often in life, we compare our lives to others who seem to have a better life and when we see this, we want that better life too. We torture ourselves over this and it makes us feel like our lives aren’t going well.

This is a comparison trap that never does anyone any good. If viewing other people makes you feel jealous or not enough, put up your blinders. Stop looking at them and focus on your own life which is pretty great if you could see it for yourself. And keep moving forward in your life. Trust me, anyone that appears to have it all, either spent a lot of time and effort to get where they are or they’re putting up a front to get people to notice them. Remember, nothing comes easy for anyone so if you want to get anywhere in life, you just need to do the work – the good, the bad, and the ugly. And keep your blinders up when doing it.

Realize You Have A Choice

Things will always go wrong, that is the nature of life.  It could be your kids won’t cooperate so you’re late, your spouse has to work late again, you’ve spilled juice (or coffee) all over yourself, you’ve had a car accident on the way to work, your fridge died hours before you’re hosting a party.  Life all around you has its ups and downs but it’s how you react to them that matters.

Sure, you can wallow in your own misery and you can complain to everyone around you, but it’s how long you sit in this misery that matters.  Is it 10-15 minutes or does it drag on for hours or days? By all means, have a small pity party. It feels good to get out our emotions but then you need to move on from it.  Being sour over what happened isn’t going to change the outcome nor is it going to help you feel any better.

So often we bring on so much stress and anxiety over things that happen to us.  But if we briefly reflect that something went wrong, do what we need to do to remedy it, and then proceed to move through our day instead of festering all the bad that just happened, will help our well-being.  Don’t let a bad experience ruin your whole day.   

Charles R. Swindoll once said, “We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

You always have a choice on how you’re going to react.  How will you react the next time something goes wrong?  

Related: Create a Better Life in 6 Easy Ways

Learn to Say NO

A lot of overwhelm comes from saying yes to everything.  It could be saying yes to the PTO, yes to the next thing that’s going on at work, yes to friends but where do you draw the line? You can’t do everything. You need to understand what your goals are in your life and if someone asks you to do something that is not in line with your goals, just say no.  Every time you give someone a yes when it doesn’t align with what’s important to you, you are saying no to yourself.  Stop doing that.  You need to take time for YOU.  

And remember this, it’s easier to take back a no than it is to take back a yes.  If after saying no, you realize you can help, then agree on helping.  But once you commit to that yes, you need to own it.  

I know this might be hard for you but you need to think about yourself.  Why are you running around ragged for someone else?

Celebrate Your Wins

We all have good things that happen to us in life.  Maybe we met a goal we were working towards, maybe we got a raise at work, maybe we decluttered an area in our homes.  No matter how small the win is, celebrate it.

Don’t just blow it off because you don’t have the time or think it’s not important. It means something to you and that’s all that matters.  

If you have a hard time seeing the good in things, try a gratitude journal. Write in it every day with the things you’re thankful for. When you can look back on all that you’ve written, it will be hard for you to feel sorry for yourself.

Love Yourself

You’re doing the best you can do.  Realize you’re not perfect and it’s okay to mess up. Be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up just because you make mistakes.

Lisa Lieberman – Wang once said, “You are not your mistakes; they are what you did, not who you are”.

Loving yourself is one of the best things you can do for yourself for a better life.  But it’s also sometimes a very hard thing to achieve.  Here are a few ideas of things you can try that have the biggest impact on my life.

Saying and thinking affirmations.  Saying positive things about yourself and seeing positive messages will slowly improve your life. 

Meditation is also a wonderful practice for your well-being. It does take time to build, just don’t give up and over time it will get easier and you’ll start to see the benefits in your life.

Spending time on yourself is one of the best things you can do to improve your life so you can start loving yourself in the process.

Yet, I understand you’re probably thinking you don’t have any time to spend on yourself. Well, this next tip doesn’t take any extra time or effort, is quite simple, and so powerful.

I recently learned about this from Mel Robbin’s book, The High Five Habit. First thing in the morning, right after you wake up and you’re standing in front of your bathroom mirror, take a couple of seconds and give yourself a high five into the mirror. Look at yourself as you’re doing this.

You’ll notice you can’t say or think mean things about yourself as you’re giving yourself a high five. Instead, you may laugh to yourself or you may cry.

So, tomorrow morning, give it a try. You have nothing to lose but think of the positivity it will bring into your life. Check out more information about the High Five Habit.

Make spending time on YOU a priority in your life. However big or small will benefit you.

Final Thoughts

Life will always have ups and downs. It’s how you react to all of it that matters. Remember these 7 steps next time you get knocked down and feel overwhelmed.

• Do a brain dump
• Make a plan
• Put up your blinders
• Realize you always have a choice
• Learn to say no
• Celebrate your wins
• Love yourself

Enjoy the life you are led to lead. You are worth it!

What causes you to feel overwhelmed?

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