Overwhelm.

Do you ever feel like you’ve got a million things to do and your brain is spinning, you’re not sure what to do next, and you just want to give up?

Well, I had that feeling of overwhelm this morning.

Then I told myself to stop that. It’s helping no-one, it’s not helping you get clients, it’s not helping you write, it’s not helping your happiness.

Afterwards, I did something that always helps. I wrote down all the things swimming in my head in no particular order. Then I looked at them. I looked at my schedule. I estimated how long I’d take to do each one (albeit very quickly). Then I was ready to write a day by day plan.

I only ever write three days in advance because things change and I have no idea if I’ll actually complete all those tasks in three days. Of course I’d like to but I’m okay if I don’t. Put another way, I won’t beat myself up because I failed to write three thousand words for a short story competition. Two thousand will suffice. Unless I hate it, then I’ll have to start again but that’s another matter…

Back to overwhelm. It can affect us in different ways. It’s unsurprisingly closely related to stress and can produce the same adverse affects on our psych and body. You probably know how but here’s a friendly reminder:

Psychological: mood swings, irritability, agitation, depression, memory problems, racing thoughts, poor sleep and short attention span.

Physical: headaches, migraines, muscle tension, skin issues, increased heart rate, heart attacks, high blood pressure, IBS, hair loss, insomnia and diabetes.

That’s a terrible, and long list (and there are more I haven’t mentioned).

So if the one thing you do is to tell yourself off, or do some deep breathing exercises, or go for a run, or write a list, then that’s a start.

Guess what also causes stress? Yep, you’ve got it. Clutter. See my psychological page for more information on the subject.

A Tip: just tidy one small section of a place. A shelf say. And, fingers crossed, you’ll get on a roll and before long you’ve sorted the entire cupboard.