From the course: How to Set Goals When Everything Feels Like a Priority

Coping with overwhelm

From the course: How to Set Goals When Everything Feels Like a Priority

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Coping with overwhelm

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- [Instructor] It's incredibly stressful to feel like you have a million things to do and not enough time to do them, but feeling overwhelmed only makes it worse. Here are three ways to take back control. First, make a list of everything you need to do and write it down, When it's 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. Instead, put it on paper so your brain can relax. Second, take your to-do list 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 a.m., 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. Third and finally, notch a small win for yourself. Many projects we work on are complex and 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. Instead, make sure to take note of small milestones 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. And it's important to notice that so you can observe the progress you're making along the way. We all have a lot to do, but these three strategies can help make things feel a lot more manageable.

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