Coping with overwhelm

- It's incredibly stressful to feel like you have a million things to do and not enough time to do them. You begin to feel so behind, you don't know where or how to get started, so you don't, and the stress becomes worse, creating a vicious circle, but we can fight back. Here are three ways to regain control when you're overwhelmed by your goals. First, make a list of everything you need to do and write it down. This step sounds simple, but the truth is, many of us have things written down in multiple places, some digital, some on paper, some not at all, so it's hard to have a sense of our total obligations. Getting everything in one place is a critical initial step. As the author of getting things done, David Allen observes when goals or to-dos are floating around in your head. Your subconscious is constantly vigilant, making sure you don't forget something. That means it'll keep popping back up at inopportune times like the middle of the night. Having everything in one place allows your brain to relax and enables you to make an honest accounting of the promises you've made to yourself or to others. Second, take the to-do list you've created and map it onto your calendar. For every task, find an actual date and time. On Tuesday from three to five, I'm going to write the report, and on Friday at 10:00 AM I'm doing the project debrief with the team. You don't have to worry as much once you know there's a concrete time when it will get done. In fact, in my book, the Long Game, I interviewed productivity expert and LinkedIn learning instructor, Dave Crenshaw, and he told me that everyone's always asking him about the best productivity tool to use, and they're expecting some piece of software or something fancy and Dave tells them a calendar. Making your obligations real and creating a definite commitment is simple, but shockingly effective. Third, and finally, notice and observe your small victories. Many projects we work on are complex and they take a long time to finish in the middle, which could be months or even years. It can feel very discouraging like you're not making any progress. That's why it's so important to take note of small milestones that you can celebrate. Sure, the new project might take two years to launch, but it's a victory to create the prototype, write the marketing materials, and run the first pilot. Recognizing those things enables you to observe the progress you're making along the way and critically keep your team and colleagues motivated and engaged. We all have a lot to do, but these three strategies can help make accomplishing your goals feel a lot more manageable.