Most people have experienced those moments (or hours, or days, or weeks) when life become so complicated and overwhelming it’s impossible to decide where to start. Some days it just feels like you are at the bottom of a hole and trying to dig your way out.
On those days, when everything is demanding your attention at once, you can’t find anything in your office, and your email inbox is crammed with urgent messages, it’s easy to succumb to overwhelm paralysis. Your brain shuts down and you find yourself getting up for a third cup of coffee or surfing the web, wasting time you don’t even have.
There are a few ways you can start breaking out of that paralyzed state.
Do Just One Thing
The reason your brain has shut down is because it’s trying to assess too many tasks at once. Narrow your focus to getting just one thing done. It may not be the most important or difficult thing on your agenda – you might not feel up to tackling the big stuff first – but even doing just one small thing will get the ball rolling, move your brain into an active state, and help snap you out of your overwhelm paralysis.
When the first task is done, that’s one less thing on your list. Move on to the next task. Maintain focus on just one item at a time – don’t start looking at everything at once, or your brain will start to shut down again. Once you have whittled away a few jobs you may find that the sense of overwhelm lessens. You are removing some of the weight piled on your back. Taking action and achieving even a small success makes you feel more confident and able to handle the rest.
Set a Timer
Sometimes you won’t be able to maintain your focus for very long because there is just too much going on. Try setting a timer for a short period, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, and stay focused on a task for just that short amount of time. At the end of that time, if your mind is wandering or something else demands your attention, take a five-minute break, and then set the timer again. Short bursts of productivity are relatively easy to maintain, and will take you much farther than doing nothing at all.
You may be surprised at how much you can accomplish in just ten or fifteen minutes of focused effort. There are often tasks on your to-do list that only take a few minutes to accomplish – you may need to file papers, make a phone call, post a short blog update, or sort your mail. These short tasks can be accomplished any time you have ten minutes to spare, and will help you feel more in control.
Get Organized
If your messy desk or disorganized papers are driving you crazy, spend some time focused on nothing else but sorting things out. If your email backlog is distracting you, start sorting and answering them. If you are feeling very overwhelmed and distracted because of disorganization in your workspace, you are unlikely to accomplish much until that factor is handled. Clear your desk, file your papers, and clean out your inbox so you can focus on your important goal-related tasks without any distractions.
To prevent such problems, it is worthwhile to spend just a few minutes a day maintaining your space. Five minutes of cleaning off your desk and filing papers at the end of each workday will set you up for a more successful start to the next one! A somewhat longer prep session at the end of each week, planning for the following week and preparing the necessary supplies, documents, and files will help you hit the ground running and decrease the sense of overwhelm.
Make a List
If you can manage to focus long enough to make a list of all your tasks, you may find that it eases the load on your brain. Racing thoughts can often be brought under control through the magical act of putting them on paper. Prioritizing your to-do list and setting time frames for accomplishing your tasks will help you get started. You may find that you can eliminate or postpone some of the items that were worrying you, which frees you to accomplish more pressing and important work.
Overwhelm paralysis can be a productivity killer. Stay in control and keep moving with these time management tips, and you will find that your workdays are smoother, less stressful, and long enough to do all the things that are truly important.
Baker Communications offers leading edge time management and personal productivity solutions that will help you address the goals and achieve the outcomes addressed in this article. For more information about how your organization can achieve immediate and lasting behavior change that will help your team members consistently achieve their high value goals while eliminating time wasted on interruptions and distractions click here.
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