How To Not Get Overwhelmed And Get Things Done.

Feeling overwhelmed easily is something I have faced for a long period.

And, slowly but surely, I have taken control of the feeling whether it be getting overwhelmed with school, feeling overwhelmed with studying, or with everyday tasks as they start to appear on my to-do list. 

Let’s begin with the beginning.

Identifying the root of the Problem

The begining is where you are in the phase of excitement. And what happens when you are too excited and the adrenaline is pumping? 

You overuse it. 

You overdo things and then when the rush drains out; it takes away all the will you thought you had to complete or even begin with the work. 

Let’s associate eating with every task for the sake of better understanding. 

Just like food is fuel for energy and our body, the task at hand is food for something bigger or something to keep going.

So you have to realize that you have to do negligible tasks to achieve the bigger goal. And, instead of your complete focus being on the end, you have to be present in the now. 

Here are some reasons you might be getting overwhelmed easily

Once you get through these reasons (Feel free to add to the list) We will then go through everything that you can and shouldn’t do. 

• When you have to do everything on your own
• You are not sure what to expect.
• Everyone around you is doing so good. Where are you lacking? 
• You have no idea what the hell you are doing. – No direction of the work that you will be taking on.
• You have very little control over your situation. 
• You have a lot list of things and now your brain is just numb. 
• You have too much to do and too less of time. 

You can use these tips for all the tasks, starting from small day tasks to a year of life-changing challenges. 

You have the liberty to accept whatever is applicable. 

Choice is your greatest power. 

Let’s Dive into the Solutions:

1| Everything takes some amount of time.

You have to realize that there is no rush, unless it’s due tomorrow then ask AI to do it. 

Don’t do that! 

I personally do not recommend using AI tools to do your work but to only simplify them. 

Your brain is your biggest asset and no machine can compare to that. 

Even in urgency, you decide your time. You take your time. 

Being the best version of yourself will take time and you have to give yourself time. Just like your food needs the time it needs to be cooked properly and to taste good: you have to let your skills cook in their own time for them to help you properly. 

Remember: Your pace, but everyday progress. 

2| Know where you are going to start but don’t have a do-or-die end. 

You have been told, your entire life, that if you are not planning to succeed you are planning to fail. That might be true to some extent but we tend to forget that we only have control over our actions. 

I welcome you to have an action plan. But know that, it is only as valid as today. 

For example, when cooking, you have planned all the ingredients to the best of your knowledge. But, what if your onion gets burnt and now you need extra onion, or you put in too much salt and you have to increase the quantity of food to balance things out. 

Seek for balance and improvement. And things will take care of themselves. 

You are here to chase away your overwhelm-ness, not be hard on yourself over something that can be adjusted and improvised. 

The truth is there is a lot of brain work before that. Everything is created in your mind first then it appears in your reality. 

You have to do one simple thing:

Take a piece of paper. Write down what you think you need to do.

Then write down what you need to do to facilitate the thing that you listed already.

For Example; your task is a particular recipe, while the back-end task will be to make sure that you have all the ingredients in your kitchen supporting your ambitious recipe. 

Your brain is to invent and work on things, not store them. So, it’s always good to dump all the mind to-do lists and make them pen-tickable to-do lists.

3| Get a Journal. Or make one. 

Journaling and keeping track of things I have done and not done, has saved my sanity. 

There is a very particular method that I use to do this. The Bullet Journal Method. You can watch the video below or click the link to the video for a better understanding.

Here is a brief for you. 

It is a single book for all your tasks, notes, important events, and planning. Here, you can postpone the tasks to the next day, next month, or next quarter without missing out on it altogether. 

This method is so foolproof that you can stay organized without losing track of things. At all.

It helps you realize that you are using a planner to help you plan better and destress your brain and not to put yourself down when you don’t complete tasks.

Here is a free Bullet Journal Printable. It will help you get started immediately and effectively.

4| One Step at a time. 

There is a lot of competition in the outer world. People are fighting tooth and nail to prove their worth. 

There is nothing wrong with fighting for what you want, but you have to fight with your past self and not other human beings. 

And for the same reason you have to separate yourself from the outer world. Someone else’s reality does not have to be your reality. 

I recently came across a line in the book REWORK by Jason Fried that struck me immediately.

“Other people’s failure is just that: other people’s failures.”

And I believe it is the same for success.

Their actions have nothing to do with you but everything to do with them. 

You take your own damn time. 

It took me a week to write this post, but I am making sure I put the best out for you. Just like that, you must do the best for you. 

A gentle reminder: Some things need to be done in time and they will stress you out. But you cannot control everything, so stop yourself when you get frustrated and take a step back. 

You cannot be relaxed 24/7, that is life. You feel the rock bottoms that is when you appreciate the higher highs. 

Learn to prioritize and things will be fine.

5| Declutter like your life depends on it. 

A dirty space is the residence of the devil. 

The dirty space is all the garbage you collect, thinking you need it but you don’t and won’t for another ten years. 

The devil being: The Overwhelmed-ness. 

Let’s compare two different places. A grocery store and your kitchen cabinet. A grocery store has 90 percent of things you don’t need. It is a store for your future needs. 

So will you stock everything you think you will need in advance or stock things you know you will need? 

The store is there for a reason.

Keep your pantry small. It prevents things from going bad and spoiling your glorious plans. 

6| Just say no. 

A week before my college began, I knew it would be the first time in a long time that I would be getting a chance to take a leave from work, with no college and no obligation. 

So I took it, even though I knew there would be guilt. And guilt was easier to take care of than a fried and overworked brain.

Saying no is the biggest lifesaver and overwhelm-killer. You want it. You want the no. 

You cannot make breakfast while thinking of lunch while running to your job early, and the breakfast remains half eaten, just because you said yes to something you absolutely don’t have to do. 

People will get angry. Let them. They will be disappointed. Let them be. They will manipulate you and guilt trip you and let them do that. But let everything stay to them and only them.

Don’t let their trash come to you.

They should know your boundaries and for that, you need to show them your boundaries.

I am not saying do the bare minimum. I am asking to make sure that you dont die doing something you couldn’t say no to. You are better than that and this is where your prioritisation will help you. 

I have two pups and my priority is to feed them twice a day and give them my time to connect and play. A non-negotiable for me.

So if suddenly someone is going to come in and ask me to do something extra which is not my job or a life-death situation- it’s an immediate no from me. 

Although you might need to get creative in how you say no. You need to say no. 

7| Detach from the outcome and enjoy the Journey. 

When you are so attached to the end of how you want everything to turn out and how perfect it would be. You will miss out on all the joy of the journey. The outcome is not in your hands.

Only success and your hard work are in your hands, along with our dedication and commitment.

The time is not in your hands, only your efforts are. 

When you think of the outcome, that is when you feel overwhelmed because suddenly the motivation wears off and how the f*ck are you going to achieve that? 

You can and you will. 

That’s the only thing you need to know. 

When, how much, and how is not the focus. Why is the focus. 

When you ask the greater power, the Universe, the god for something, you ask with the little brain of yours, that thinks it knows the best. 

But when the higher power/universe/god gives you it gives you with its capacity. 

Trust the process and things will fall into place on their own. 

8| Keep a Trial Period. 

Not to see if you can do it, but to see how you can do it. 

When you are about to take on something big. Something so different and challenging that you will have to change your life more than 30 percent always keep a buffer time. 

Because soon you will fall short of your perfectionist expectation, or your car tire will go flat, or someone will show up unannounced begging for your money. Ans sometime you cannot say no.

And it will f*ck up your plan and your brain at the same time. 

Remember how we spoke about having a plan that can be improvised? This is where it will help you. Grab the free printable now.

This will help you to know what you exactly need to do, and how much effort each step is going to take.

This will help you get results and execution higher. 

It will keep you in the game for longer than if you were to throw yourself into the unknown tomorrow and get downhearted by the night. 

Which leads me to my last point. 

9| Self-service and self-care.

This point in itself is worth a blog post. But I’ll save that for a later date. 

Remember the food example that we have taken. Let’s talk about the ingredients, plants to be specific. What gives you the best taste, the best color, and the best nutrition? A good quality eggplant, fresh green basil, and ripe tomatoes maybe.

How do they become their best?

When you nurture them. When you give them water and sunlight. When you allow it to face the hard weather it helps the plant take deep roots and become better. 

Similarly, you need to take time off. 

Relax, travel, do skin care and brain dump, read non-fiction, and take a hot bath. All of this allows you to grow your roots and become stronger. 

Screaming into the pillow and self-sabotaging can be avoided when you take care of yourself. 

You are stronger than you think. 

You should always believe in yourself. Because I do. 

Conclusion: 

An overview of the post.

Identifying the root of the Problem

• Choice is your greatest power.

Everything takes some amount of time.

• Your pace, but everyday progress.

Know where you are going to start but don’t have a do-or-die end. 

• Your brain is to invent and work on things, not store them.

Get a Journal. Or make one.

• It will help you stay sane, all in one book.

One Step at a time.

• separate yourself from the outer world.

Declutter like your life depends on it. 

• Keep your pantry small. It prevents things from going bad and spoiling your glorious plans.

Just say no. 

• Saying no is the biggest lifesaver and overwhelm-killer. You want it. You want the no. 

Detach from the outcome and enjoy the Journey.

• The outcome is not in your hands. Only success is and your hard work is. Your dedication and commitment is.

Keep a Trial Period. 

• Not to see if you can do it, but to see how you can do it.

Self-service and self-care,

• You are stronger than you think.

Useful links In This Post:

To buy the books now: REWORK by Jason Fried & The Bullet Journal Method.

To watch the video: The Bullet Journal Method.

Thank You for reading! See you in the next post!