How to Get A Lot Done Without Feeling Overwhelmed

After she brushed her teeth, slid her binder in her backpack, and picked up the papers that had fallen on the floor Sweet P was done. Washed out by 8 a.m.
“Ugh. Sometimes life just feels so hard,” she said with a soap-opera sigh and eye roll.
Yep, sometimes it does. And usually it’s the little things — though I’m wishing my little things were as little as putting a binder in a backpack —  that back up against the big things and push me over the edge from calm efficiency into overwhelm.
But, most days now, I can feel it coming. It’s the pressure along the back of my shoulders, the way I talk to my husband as I rattle through “all the things I have to get done,” and the heavy feeling in my head, like a brain fog settling into the neuropathways that make it hard for me to think clearly, that tells me when I’m close to feeling overwhelmed.
On my best days, I’ll catch it right there before careening over the cliff in my office chair. Not everyday is my best day, but when I am aware that my brain is cycling down an unproductive path, when it all feels hard, I have some quick interventions I use to mellow out, calm down, and feel better.
How to Get A Lot Done Without Feeling Overwhelmed
1. Quiet now and later. This is my fave. Sometimes, I have to escape to the shower, other times it can be a walk in the neighborhood, sometimes I’ll take a time out in the back corner f my bedroom and forbid ANYONE from entering. This approach works best when accompanied by a scary intense glare. I also get up to meditate, or sometimes sit in a stupor on the couch while drinking coffee, in the morning before anyone else is awake.
A moment of quiet without my computer, phone, television, a moment of quiet without others talking to me, without doing, is both a preventative measure and an intervention when you are in the thick of stress.
Take five minutes a day just to breathe and sit quietly. This works super good when you are in the car waiting for your kid to come out. Turn off the phone. Turn off the radio. Take deep breaths.
2. Change your pace. Sometimes this is as simple as washing my hands slowly and mindfully in warm water and just giving all of my attention to that moment. Other times, I’ll go outside for a few minutes and take in some deep breaths. Sometimes I’ll head to a coffee shop nearby, or go to the gym for a workout.
Whatever it is, my goal is to do something physically different, so my mind disengages from the repetitive negative thought patterns, worries, and rumination that contribute to that feeling of being overwhelmed.
When we move our body out of the environment where those concerns persist, our physiology changes. Its hard to be washing your hands in warm water or feeling the chilled air and not have some physical reaction, and when our bodies change, so do our thoughts.
This gives a  break from the weighty thoughts that lead us feeling bogged down. So change up something in your environment and you change how your body feels and that will shift how you think , for just a moment. Just long enough to short-circuit stress.
3. Do what feels good. Seriously, eat the mac and cheese, take a nap, reach out to a friend, watch a funny video, pray, run, get a massage. Whatever. Just do something right now that feels good. Something that feels better than feeling bad and scared and too busy and too tired and overwhelmed.
Do something that feels comforting and nurturing and savor it for a second — or 15 to 30 seconds to be precise. That’s about the length of time it takes to soak in and start changing how we feel, according to research by Fred Bryant an others.
Overwhelm occurs when we feel like we are giving out more than we are getting in return. We begin to feel depleted. A moment of self-care or comfort, helps us to feel grounded, nourished, replenished or at least a little less crazy.