Have you ever felt that you have too much on your plate? You look at your long list of to-dos and you don’t even know where to start.
As mumpreneurs and female business owners, overwhelm is something that you can easily fall into because there are so many things to take care of. And when you are feeling overwhelmed, that’s when you feel scattered in a million directions and unable to actually do anything productive.
So in this article, I want to share 5 strategies that will help you get out of overwhelm. It works, so read on!
Do a brain dump
When you feel overwhelmed and not sure where to start, it’s time to get everything out of your head and on paper. When you have too many things floating around in your head, it becomes very difficult to see a way out.
Get a blank piece of paper or if you prefer to type, open up a blank document and start typing or writing. Write down everything, all your to-dos, EVERYTHING!
It doesn’t need to be grammatically correct, just keep writing until you have everything out on paper.
Do you feel a sense of relief now that you’ve off loaded all that stuff from your brain?
At this point, you’ll see that you can actually delegate some of the tasks, you might also notice that some things don’t need to be done immediately.
Create boundaries
Not having boundaries will make you open to accepting or processing everything that comes your way and that will lead to severe overwhelm. However, laying down some simple boundaries will help you to be able to immediately cut off things that you don’t want to do, so that when it’s presented, you don’t have to spend any time or energy processing it. It’s an immediate NO. If you find this particularly challenging, that could be something to explore with a professional counsellor, see here for more information.
Slow down and take a deep breath
This tip sounds very simple but it’s amazing what it can do for your body. Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed, stop what you are doing and take a slow deep breath. Getting oxygen into your body releases a lot of the tension that comes with feeling overwhelmed. Repeat this deep breathing exercise a couple of times until you feel your body relax.
Let go of the ‘shoulds’ that don’t matter to you
It’s so easy to get stuck in the ‘shoulds’ that don’t really matter to us. For example: I should learn how to speak French!
Or…
My husband should know how to wash the dishes properly…
Or….
My clients should understand that I reserve my weekends for my family and myself.
My point is this: does it really matter if you don’t know how to speak French? If your husband isn’t good at washing dishes, would the world fall apart?
Clogging your mind up with all these ‘shoulds’ does not change the situation. Rather you will get overwhelmed because your mind is storing way too much.
Let it go!
Focus on the next step
What causes overwhelm, most of the time, is thinking that you have to get everything done at once. So rather than thinking about all the steps you need to take to get to your goal, focus on the next step you need to take.
If you had to get to the top of a mountain, you would start with one step, then another, and another. That is the same way to approach your business so you don’t fall into overwhelm, one step at a time!
I hope you have found these 5 tips useful. If you are feeling overwhelmed, make a decision to at least try a couple of these tips and be consistent. You will feel so much better in your body, and you will be able to focus on the productive activities that do matter!