10 Helpful Things To Do When You’re Overwhelmed

In this series, I’ve been sharing strategies to manage your heavy workload so that you can work efficiently and effectively and manage your stress levels without getting completely overwhelmed.

In the previous post, I discussed why the grin-and-bear-it approach is terrible for you, your team, your organization, and your loved ones. Now, I’m back with some more constructive alternatives to sucking it up.

What to Do When Your Workload is Too High

Without further ado…

1. Triage Your Work

To triage is to prioritize action based on an assessment of the urgency of the need, the nature of the effort required, and the likelihood of success. When dealing with an insurmountable workload, triage is your first step. Resist the temptation to jump into the first task or to respond to the top email in your inbox until you take a few moments to jot down the things you need to do and sort them.

How you sort them is up to you. You might choose what goes first based on the due date, the number of people waiting on your outputs, the urgency of the situation, and the type of work you do best at a particular time of day. Many different criteria can be effective. The secret is to avoid diving into the task that’s most obvious, straightforward, or for the person squawking loudest.

2. Ask for Help Prioritizing

Either before (or preferably after) you’ve triaged, ask your manager for assistance or validation of what you’ve put first, second, and third. Make this request even more helpful by sharing your estimates of how long it will take to complete each task and how much time you have available.

For example, you could say. “I plan to do the ACME report first, which should take about three hours. Then, I have a two-hour steering committee meeting. Afterward, I will make the changes to the draft proposal; an hour should be enough so you have those by the end of the day. That means I have to push the follow-up calls to tomorrow. Does that work for you?” This not only ensures you’re spending time on the right things but also gives your manager a sense of how much you’ve got going on.

3. Schedule Future Work

One of the most productive things you can do when you’re overwhelmed is to move things off your to-do list and put them somewhere for safekeeping. The stress associated with juggling and trying to remember many tasks reduces your ability to be productive in the moment. By documenting your non-priority activities, you get them out of your working memory so that you can focus on the task at hand.

I’m a big fan of bullet journaling to keep track of future work so that it doesn’t interfere with or intrude on my current focus. I share my instructions and a downloadable template for bullet journaling here.

4. Protect Prime Time

Know your rhythms and be ruthless in protecting your most productive time of day. Or, more specifically, protect the different productive periods by tailoring them to the right kind of work. If you are most creative in the morning, don’t let administrative tasks clog that time. If you’re naturally chatty mid-afternoon, use that time for catch-up calls or check-ins.

You might have three or four hours each day when you can focus and work in flow. That time is precious. Do your best not to let low-priority work seep into that time.

5. Capitalize on Unproductive Time

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you might have more moments than usual when your brain feels foggy, frantic, or frazzled. By scheduling suitable activities at this time and using strategies to chunk the work and make it feel more like a game, you won’t have to write off the lulls in your day. Contenders for your typically low-energy periods include responding to five emails, following up on two outputs you’re waiting on, or doing administrative tasks like entering information into a CRM. When all else seems too taxing, I’ll do invoicing and get the sense of satisfaction that a bill is out the door.

6. Create a Cocoon

When you’re overwhelmed and facing a torrent of tasks, it can feel like standing on the gaming floor at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas; the lights and sounds bombard you. If you’re overwhelmed, retreat to a quiet space where you can limit distractions. If you’re in an office, see if there’s a small space where you can shut the door. Close all applications except the one you need to do your work. If that application has multiple tabs open, close the non-essential ones. Turn off all notifications: email, texts, Slack, etc. (I particularly like the specific focus categories in iOS that send a message informing those trying to reach me that I’m in focus mode.) There’s even research that shows that moving your phone out of sight will make focus much easier.

7. Set a Timer

Using a timer to create bursts or sprints of work can help you stay on task and accomplish things. Building momentum is essential when overwhelmed, so don’t be sheepish about starting with a 15-minute block. I do that when I’m overwhelmed, but I still have to get writing done. I tell myself that I only need to write for 15 minutes. That doesn’t feel too daunting, so it helps me stop procrastinating. I can’t remember a single time that I’ve stopped 15 minutes in. By then, the ideas are starting to flow, and it’s relatively easy to keep going. (This is the one I use because I like to go analog, so I don’t need my phone close at hand.)

Don’t make your blocks too long, though. You need to move around, rest your eyes, clear your thoughts. I’ve got a Spotify playlist of songs for my dance breaks between my focus sessions. It’s full of tunes guaranteed to lift my mood and get me moving.

8. Tell your Colleagues

Many people feel sheepish or even ashamed of being overwhelmed and try to keep it a secret. That’s a poor strategy. Let a couple of people know when you’ve got too much on your plate. This serves a few purposes. First, it might be that the person can take some of the load off by doing components of the work, enlisting others’ support, or shifting the due dates on your tasks. Second, you give them a heads up if there are risks to delivering something they need so they have time to form a Plan B. Third, you give them a chance to support you. For example, I’ve had colleagues offer to grab me food so I can take 20 minutes to join them to eat without having to take the extra 20 to walk to the food court.

9. Switch Modes

Part of feeling overwhelmed is feeling like the clock is ticking, but you’re making no progress. If the ideas are not flowing in one form, try switching to a different mode. If you’re trying to write, grab a microphone and try riffing into your phone so it transcribes the audio. This is particularly helpful if you’re better when on the move. Alternatively, grab a blank sheet of paper and see if drawing or creating a mind map unlocks something useful. The idea is not to struggle unnecessarily while you’re feeling overwhelmed. If you’ve sat for 15 minutes trying to write a response to an email, switch gears rather than getting to the point of feeling helpless.

10. Take a Power Nap

Sometimes, that feeling of being overwhelmed is your body telling you it needs rest. There’s nothing wrong with listening to your body. Brief naps can be incredibly refreshing. There are many mid-day nap regimens, but the one I use is to sit on my couch and watch a couple of YouTube videos while I drink a massive mug of caffeinated tea. When the tea is gone, I put on a podcast, set my alarm for 25 minutes, and doze off. I usually wake up a few minutes before the alarm and then listen to the podcast for five groggy minutes while I wake up. Then, I am good as new and back at it. (In fact, I did exactly that between drafting and editing this post.)

Having too much to do, feeling overwhelmed, and stressing about how you will get it all done is not pleasant. Don’t suck it up and try to survive by doing the same thing, only harder, for longer, or sloppier. Choose a better set of tasks and work through them more efficiently and effectively.

Additional Resources

8 Ways to Feel Less Overwhelmed by Your Workload

A Personalized Approach to Feeling Less Overwhelmed

How To Tell Your Boss You’re Overwhelmed

 

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