Recently I have been feeling super overwhelmed in most aspects of my life. I never seem to have the time to write, (meaning I’ve turned into a writer who doesn’t really write); I’ve once again been neglecting to blog. (I think my last blog post was in March last year); and I won’t even attempt to tell you all how behind I am with my ironing.
Being overwhelmed is not a nice place to be in, and I have been in this place before, fortunately this gives me the tools to escape back to a place of serene control. A place where I can trust I have a robust system in place for all the many things I need to do.
I have put systems in place before, but they were not robust enough to cope with hurdles thrown up by life events, so I will need to honestly think about why my systems haven’t worked for me. (I suspect this might be partly down to stubborn rebelliousness).
This is what I am going to try:
- Restart my bullet journal. I let this slide last year, and so now have no second brain to make sure I am not missing things
- Make a weekly appointment with me to review the week just gone and plan for the week ahead. (I also need to reward myself for keeping it.)
- Routine will be key. I have a tendency to think of routines as boring, but with two middle sized children I know routine is the foundation upon which great adventures can be built and enjoyed.
- Establish a second brain (see How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott)
- Blog into the future. Writing drafts in advance and trying not to aim for perfectionism. Images are super important but waiting till I have the perfect image can be the difference between getting a post published or not.
- Remember that even the smallest bit of cleaning will make me feel more in control.
- Do something fun and non work related everyday. (reading books, playing games or even a sneaky Sunday afternoon nap)
- Keep going.
Do you ever get overwhelmed? I’d love to know what strategies you use get life back on track again. Post in the comments or get in contact using my Contact form
29/04/2020 at 1:06 pm
Love the site– really user pleasant and lots to see!
04/01/2021 at 3:06 pm
This is completely familiar to me. I feel like I spent most of my young adulthood just learning to be a grownup in a way I could actually achieve. I believe you’re on the right track for tackling it – in particular, the efforts to systematize things using your bullet journal and weekly checks.
A few things I’ve found that help me:
– I’ve made a bit of a hobby of figuring out how to streamline and simplify ordinary life. The easier it is to accomplish the basics, the more I’m able to handle the crises without letting go of the basics.
– Along with that, I frequently and consciously evaluate what “the basics” are. I find that I tend to start accepting tasks as required when in fact it’s perfectly possible to be healthy and productive without those things. Move those tasks into the “nice but not essential” category and you’ll be cheered when you do them rather than feeling guilty when you don’t.
– Whatever system you’re using has to be so ingrained into your daily life that you’ll never have to remind yourself to look at it. The specifics of that differ for everyone, but be wary of separate, distinct apps or products that promise to organize your life if only you’d spend time looking at them.
– Finally, be kind to yourself. Stop berating yourself for what’s not done, and start cheering yourself for getting anything done. The world’s a challenging place and no one should expect to be perfect!
10/01/2021 at 1:35 pm
Hi Sarah thank you so much for your lovely comment. Your advise is super useful and ties in with what I’ve been trying to do. We went into lockdown about a month after I originally wrote this in Feb 2020 and focussing on small steps became essential. I am becoming much better at getting habits ingrained. (one of them is writing new content and doing website stuff once a week).
Finally I am working hard on being kind to myself, and hopefully this will show in my posts, one of the reasons I have taken a break from blogging is that I felt I was always moaning and being a bit hard on myself. Not a cool thing.
Rosie