How to Overcome Overwhelm and Increase Daily Productivity + Amazon gift card giveaway!

This year has been extremely tough for me. With multiple aspects of my life battling for attention, it was very easy for me to feel overwhelmed. I found that I was struggling to get things done and despite working the longer hours and I didn’t feel like I was actually accomplishing anything at the end of the day. As a result, I was feeling more overworked and overwhelmed. So in the past few months, I have really taken the time to try and simplify my life as much as possible to really focus on what is important and healthy for my mind and body. In today’s blog post, I will be sharing with you my tips and tricks to not only help you get increased daily productivity, but to also battle that feeling of overwhelm when life becomes to hectic.

1. WRITE IT OUT

A lot of people call this a “brain dump”. I do this in my planner because I have one, but it really doesn’t have to be anything fancy at all. It’s literally just dumping down all your thoughts and tasks down on a piece of paper and then trying to make sense of it all. The simple process of writing it down and getting it out of your head is a great tool to unload yourself of the stresses of daily life. Then, once you have everything in your head on that piece of paper, you can get another piece of paper and start to organize those messy thoughts by categorizing them.

2. MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL

What we need to do now is separate these crazy lists by work or personal sections or break them down further into individual projects. Having this smaller list will give you a better visual of what you need to do and also help you make sense of what is going on in your head.

At this point, these lists may still be quite big depending on what may be going on in your life, so to be able to integrate these lists into your daily life, we’re going to create a top three to-do list for a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. By doing this, you are ensuring that you are making these goals a priority and breaking up the task into smaller pieces so that they don’t become so overwhelming all at once.

The key for making this top three to-do list work is that you have to make sure that you get these three things done by the deadline. That way, you’re getting things down and create a routine for yourself. Sooner or later, all this will become natural for you and you won’t even feel overwhelmed.

So, for example, in the daily top three, I make sure that those three tasks are completed by the end of the day. For a monthly top three, I complete those top three tasks before the month is over. Now this is not to say that those three things are the only things you do that month, but these are the things that you feel are the highest priority and you will feel good about if they are completed.

3. DELETE, DELEGATE AND DO

This next step actually occurs alongside the previous one, but this is just as important as creating a top three. As you’re going through your messy list and creating your top threes, it’s important to stop and think about what is important in your life. Take a moment to really think about which tasks are absolutely necessary or could be shelved for another time in your life when you aren’t so busy. This is what I mean by delete. It doesn’t mean that it is gone forever, but it’s just being removed from the current list for the moment. You can always come back to it when you have more time.

Another thing to consider is what tasks must be done by you and what can be delegated to someone else. We all have friends and family members who would happily help you out if you’re feeling stressed so don’t feel bad about pushing some of those tasks onto them to help you breathe a little easier.

At the end of all this, you should have a much smaller list than you had at the start and it should start to feel a little more manageable because you have gotten rid of the extra unnecessary things and are now focusing on your real priorities.

4. SCHEDULE VS. TO DO LISTS

The last designation I want to make here is the difference between to-do lists and a schedule. This pertains mostly to the daily to-do lists or top threes you make.

These to-do lists aren’t really time-specific whereas schedules are. For example, if you have a meeting at 3 p.m., this is a schedule whereas “completing a report” isn’t. When assigning your top three for the day, make sure you are taking into consideration your current schedule as well so that you aren’t putting too many tasks on one day. Of course, things pop up and happen unexpectedly, but try your best to evenly spread your tasks out. Also, be realistic! Everyone strives to do their best everyday but keep things realistic as possible so that you aren’t putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.

5. SCHEDULE SOME DOWN TIME FOR YOURSELF

While you are creating time for your dreams and goals, it’s also important to schedule in some quality time for yourself. Your body and mind needs rest in order to perform well so make sure to also schedule some breaks in between. Things like exercise, meditation, reading and journaling are all just as important as spending time with your friends and family, so don’t forget about doing those things for yourself as well.

So those are my tips for overcoming overwhelm and daily productivity. If you’re curious about how I personally accomplish all this in my planner, let me know in the comments. Hopefully, these tips will help you get more things down in a timely manner and I hope you all achieve your dreams and goals this year.

This month’s giveaway is a $20 Amazon gift card. This is open to everyone and the winner will be notified via email. Good luck!