Do you ever feel overwhelmed? I suspect most of us do, whether or not we’d tell anyone. I tend to have a lot of projects on the go, and though I’m keeping my core focus on a couple of key goals, life inevitably involves a handful of other things too.
I’ve written before about putting off goals which don’t need to be done yet (and I’ve got several of mine on my “on hold” list at the moment). But what I want to explore today is how to cope when you’ve got several medium to large projects on your plate. I’m using “project” very loosely, to cover any long-term thing which involves regular work, and which progresses towards some finished state.
In some cases, very big projects involve multiple smaller ones: I view Aliventures as a project (it’s not just the name of my blog, it’s also my business name) – but it’s not something which has an obvious end-state. However, it does involve sub-projects along the way, like writing ebooks and setting up a newsletter (stay posted for more on those in a few weeks!)
On Saturday, I was looking at what I wanted to get done this week and feeling distinctly overwhelmed: how the heck am I going to fit everything in? The problem with this feeling is that it doesn’t lead to productive action: it can be almost paralysing, and I end up caught between various – perfectly good – options, and unable to choose between them.
If that sounds at all familiar to you, here’s what I do to cope with the “too much to do” feeling, and how you can get through a lot of work without ending up stressed and exhausted.
Finish Smaller Projects First
In personal finance, there’s a concept called the debt snowball. The idea is to pay off the smallest debts first – even if this isn’t the perfect way, economically speaking, to get out of debt. It works because it’s encouraging: you get a fast sense of progress at the start, which makes it easier to stick with it. Plus, with each debt that you knock off, it gets that bit easier to tackle the bigger ones.
I think the project snowball is a great life management equivalent. I know most experts advise working on your top priority project first, but sometimes it’s actually better to knock something smaller off your list, so that you’ve got more attention (and more enthusiasm) to tackle the bigger things.
Have you got something fairly small that’s dragging on your time and attention – something that, given a day or two’s focused attention, you could pretty much finish? Getting that one project done will free up some time, plus it’ll give you the completion satisfaction of being able to get something totally off your to-do list – and off your mind.
(If you’re interested, the start of my project snowball is an ebook I’ve been working on – and, more often, not working on – for a good while: I spent Friday revising it and then sent it out to some good folks who’ll be providing feedback before I do the final revisions and edits.)
Figure Out Priorities
Sometimes, overwhelm isn’t just a result of having a lot to do – it’s caused by having an indistinguishable mass of projects, touching on different areas of your life, all of which seem to have an equal call on your attention. Taking a step back to look at priorities can really help here.
You’ll find yourself happiest when your priorities take into account what matters to you … whether or not you feel that those things would have objective meaning. (Charlie Gilkey has a great video on how Meaning Comes From Us – give it a watch, if you’ve got a few minutes.)
All of these are valid ways to prioritise:
- Pick whatever’s causing you the most anxiety. E.g. if your financial situation is a source of worry, tackle that as a priority.
- Choose the goal or project about which you’d be most proud to say “I did this” at the end of the year.
- Start with the project which you’ve been putting off or resisting .
- Think about what you value most and put that first: maybe your family, your health, or your career.
Prioritising alone isn’t going to get everything done – but it lets you relax about the things which don’t get done. They’re less important. Prioritising is also a way to decide whether you can deliberately decide to drop something, or to postpone it.
Make a Checklist
When everything’s vague and nebulous in your head, it’s easy to get paralysed before even starting. There’s a vast gulf between where you are and where you want to be, and you know you’re not going to cross it overnight – or even, perhaps, in a year or two.
I inevitably get clarity and reassurance when I write a list. This is especially helpful if something seems rather scary or new! Most projects can be broken down into a step-by-step process. Even when you’re not sure what you need to do next, you’ll have a good idea how you can find out.
Before I started blogging here at Aliventures, I had a lot to do. I wanted to buy and customise Thesis, I wanted to have some content pre-written, and I wanted to promote my blog to encourage more people to come and read. For months, I’d been thinking about having a blog here – but I knew it would be a lot of work, and I kept putting it off. Eventually, I wrote out a checklist of the “pre-launch” work which I wanted to do, and I got on with it.
If you have a project that seems scary and overwhelming, can you figure out the next five or six small steps along the way? Good early steps are often:
- Finding (high quality) information about something
- Talking to someone who’s completed a similar project
- Brainstorming ideas about how to go forwards
- Purchasing necessary equipment or books
Get Enough Down Time
When I’ve got a lot on my plate, I inevitably feel that I want to work more hours – writing blog posts at the weekend, answering emails late in the evening, and so on. This is always counter-productive for me: it leads to me getting tired, fed up, and working inefficiently, maybe making silly mistakes or just producing sub-par work.
I’m sure that you, like me, find that there are some hours in which you can accomplish an astonishing amount – and some hours where you’re running on empty and struggling to focus. Don’t fight this: if you’ve had a busy week and you’re feeling exhausted, drained and unmotivated, you’re not being lazy – you’re just in desperate need of some down time.
Although I often do work at the weekends, I don’t keep to the same sort of schedule that I have in the week. I find that I’m much more motivated and able to work on a Monday morning when I’ve had time to relax on Sunday afternoon and evening, and if I take a whole weekend off, I find myself eager to get on with my projects again.
If your work is energy-intensive, make sure you’re getting the down time which you need. Don’t force yourself to work when you need a break: it might feel more efficient, but it’s not going to be at all effective in the long run.
Do you need to give yourself a break and cut yourself a bit of slack today, so that you’ve got the energy to work well tomorrow?
As always, your thoughts and responses are very welcomed!
I'm Ali Luke, a writer and blogger living in Oxford in the UK. I blog here about writing and the writing life. 
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I love that you’ve named “project snowball,” Ali. I, too, have been using a similar technique to pull the overwhelm down.
This great post gets a lot going on me. I think I’ll save the discussion for a post on PF and trackback here. This post is one that I want to make sure more people read.
.-= Charlie´s last blog ..Why I’m Helping Haiti The Way I Am =-.
Thank you!
I feel like there’s a lot more to be said, but I wanted to get what was in my head today out there…
The backstory to this one comes from a conversation with a friend yesterday, who’s been having some difficulties recently. When we talked, one of the things that came out was her feelings of overwhelm and option paralysis; I figured it was a topic that could do with a wider airing.
Look forward to continuing the conversation.
Hi Ali
Just saw your tweet via Chalie and was enticed onto your website. It is so interesting. I work in a completely different field, but am also writer/editor, but what you have been talking about in your blog is just what I wrote about last year in my book. Taking charge of your career: for library and information professionals. A really big part of that book is about enablers – time and project management. Although I try to write about them in a non technical and less scary way. I hope you don’t mind if I follow you. I am sure we have other common themes.
Best wishes
Joanna Ptolomey
Freelance information specialist, writer and editor
Ali, I love where you’re going with this. I’ve been thinking about this lately too. Another key consideration for getting past overwhelm is employing what Charlie calls the Dread-To-Work ratio. If you look at your list and see things that really don’t need a lot of time to complete, but that you resist for whatever reason, often it’s better to just knock them out to get them off your mind. It’s easy to spend more time thinking about how much you hate a task and don’t want to do it than it takes to actually finish off the task. Doing taxes is a great example of this sort of task.
I just uncovered a potential game changer career direction move that I want to get started on (I’ll blog about that on http://mikestankavich.com next week), but I also have a consulting project in flight and any number of other things going on. I ended up laying out a timeline for each project and making a decision to reach a code complete milestone on my existing project, then split between the project by the day of the week. As you say, getting everything down on paper, an outliner or a mindmapper really helps tame the overwhelm.
As for downtime, you are exactly right, that is indeed critical. It’s easy to get in a space where you’re half-working all the time, feeling like crap, hating life, and not making the progress that you expect. I recently set up a routine where I only work on personal project work in the morning before the day job and specifically plan not to work in the evening at all. It has made a huge difference in how much I actually get done.
.-= Mike Stankavich´s last blog ..How to Securely Access Your Home or Small Biz Network From Anywhere in the World (Part 1) =-.
Joanna, thanks for coming on over, and I’m really glad you’re finding it interesting. I’d be delighted if you’d follow me. I know a couple of library-type people and they’re very lovely; I’m sure you are too!
A lot of themes, particularly good ones, seem to transcend topic areas.
Mike, thanks! Ah, I completely get the Dread-to-Work ratio thing: I’m particularly bad with phone calls (don’t like making them, have to make myself just get on with them).
I like the timelines idea, I’ve used something similar with my bigger projects: *creating* the timeline seems to be the easy part, whereas *sticking* with it is harder…
Yes, that half-working state is an icky one. I too often default into work when I’ve got a time gap – and fiddling around with emails or RSS feeds or bloggy things is rarely a good use of time.
Hi Ali,
I’m here via a retweet, and this post couldn’t be more timely for me. There’s a swarm of projects buzzing around me, and right now it feels like all I can do is swat at them so that they don’t bite. LOL
I thought of a checklist last week, and it’s been really helping, but the prioritising clearly isn’t my forte. I guess I’ll try out some of the methods you mentioned.
.-= JV Mallory´s last blog ..jvmallory: Turns out, there’s nothing like a power cut to remind one not to put off tasks for "later in the afternoon". =-.
P.S. Eek, I have no idea what that link is doing at the bottom… Sorry!
Oh boy did this speak to me-Big Time. I like the idea of picking the low hanging fruit. It gets the small projects done and out of the way.
I’ve found the going through my To-Do list, and prioritizing really helps. Not only in making sure that the right stuff gets done, but also so that I don’t forget about something.
The last part really struck home recently. I took the week off from work between Christmas and New Years, and really spent a lot of time working on our blog. By the end of that week, I was exhausted, and just needed a break.
.-= Todd´s last blog ..Stop wasting your time-Lift weights to make real progress =-.
JV, thanks for popping over! I love your metaphor there — hope I can hand you a fly swat.
Good luck getting priorities sorted; it’s one of those things that seems like it should be easy, but it really isn’t. I’m not sure it’s anyone’s forte!
(And no worries about the link; it’s generated by a plugin which finds people’s latest blog posts – you may have put in your twitter URL there?)
Todd, I did something similar between Christmas and New Year a couple of years back with my first blog. It wasn’t the most refreshing experience, though it did get the blog up and launched at least, and I took a few days off work throughout January and February to work more on the blog too.
Personally, I’m trying to be a bit more ruthless, or at least remove projects that were taking ages and replace them with ones that can achieve the same effect in noticably less time. Although there’s a lot to be said for prioritising and checklists and stuff, let’s not discount the value of good old fashioned giving up.
.-= Nick Bryan´s last blog ..Internet Stalking For Beginners =-.
Indeed, I’ve given up all sorts of projects (including two blogs) — I actually think that giving something up is often the best solution, but sometimes you’re either very attached to something, or far enough involved in it that you need to get to a stopping point.
Hey there, Ali:
Once again, this post is of practical significance: your ideas can be implemented straight off the bat.
( By the way, I look forward to reading your newsletter: what a cool idea…thanks for being proactive)
A case in point is exam fever. Methinks many people undergo this tension: the stress is palpable upon receiving the paper from the monitor in class. Ah, you quickly scan the paper only to find some questions are rather difficult and some, shall we say, inexplicable? Also, the mind can go blank, all of a sudden, on account of lack of sleep at night. What’s the solution? Well, to be practical…approach the questions first with the least level of difficulty and move on from there. This makes perfect sense.
This way, one by one, you grow in confidence. You answer the question you know most about and, as a result, every time it is like a shot in the arm. And you are at your best, needless to say, when you prioritize your task like this, no? Thus, your suggestions can work in a variety of settings and in any walk of life. However, this has probably never happened to you, since you are a brilliant student.
I used to hate doing household chores and running errands was a pain in the neck. However, I find that if I seize these opportunities–to complete mundane tasks–during the times I am feeling rather bored and listless with regular work, well, I can get a lot done. And the break is welcome: having to move my body (physically) does a great deal for my mind, and this way I have yet another excuse to fill my lungs with fresh air and catch a little sunshine. The exposure to the outdoors can do one a world of good: in fact, I recommend it. And pray, Ali, do enjoy your weekends and celebrate your down-time.
Otherwise, we shall be worried for your health and well-being: kindly avoid becoming a workaholic!
Thanks Archie, glad you enjoyed the piece. Yes, that’s a great approach to exams – which are, I suppose, a bit like life in that they offer lots of choices and you can’t pick ‘em all!
I do something similar with chores: I find sometimes, though, I need a proper break, and telling myself that doing the hoovering or buying groceries is a “break” from work just doesn’t cut it!
For me, the most difficult part is getting enough downtime. Since I am on holidays I am working on blogging projects more intensively. But I am realizing I am not working as effectively because I am not havig breaks. I believe I need to work in short bursts – 45 minutes. I am a teacher who has been following a bell for a long time.
Snowball Effect as Study Tip – must use the idea in a new post
.-= Ainslie Hunter´s last blog ..Study Skills Mentor Giveaway =-.
Like a hammer that I needed at this particular time. I’ve learned and relearned to work from my objectives and goals broken down into tasks. However, I really needed this reminder at a time when getting projects, posts, and starting to learn Word Press has put me in the overwhelmed state once again. Thanks – regroup and follow the list. Not sure if I’ll use the snowball at this point, and would probably selectively use it depending on the weight and value of top priorities. I know it works in finances and life, but wouldn’t be able to work on lesser priorities at this point. Great topic to continue the conversation in follow-up posts. Thanks again.
Scott
Ainslie, I definitely find that 45 – 60 mins is about my concentration span for blog posts. It’s hard to keep up that sort of concentration over a longer period. I can go for longer writing fiction, but I stop and stare into space a lot more when doing so!
By all means use it as a study tip — it’s actually the way I often dealt with homework when I was a teenager, getting the smallest thing off the list first, which gets you the satisfaction of crossing something off the list.
Scott, glad to be of help! I learn WordPress and code-type things in general as I need them… I usually just Google for a tutorial on whatever it is I need to do. (Customising Thesis saw a lot of that!) If I’ve got a ton of minor blog tweaks to do, I tend to keep a running list of them all, then deal with them in a batch – otherwise I tend to get side-tracked…
I have numerous projects going on right now. One is a small home based business i’m starting. The other is my personal blog to help me get focused on writing. I work a full time job and I am trying to do these other things so time is always a factor so I end up having to focus on the small pieces. So everyday I accomplish something small that adds to the grand picture. It’s like putting a puzzle together. I just hope that at the end it turns out to be a beautiful portrait.
.-= Greg´s last blog ..Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself. =-.
Thanks for the tips on dealing with analysis paralysis. This is a perfect topic for this time of the year, when we’ve all just made way too long a list of resolutions and goals.
For priorities, I like the option to start with what causes the most anxiety. Cuts at the heart of the problem of overwhelm and gets the stress level back to a manageable level.
I swear by list-making. Everything seems less daunting in bite-sized pieces.
Mike Stankavich: I like your tip about knocking off the dreaded tasks first — like ripping off a band-aid.
Greg, that’s a great way to put it … thank you! I completely sympathise with how it feels to work full time and squeeze things into the cracks: it’s really hard work. Good for you for having the drive to get on with things — and best of luck with the home business and the writing.
Laura, you’re welcome! And yes, it’s definitely a January topic..! I like that method of prioritising a lot; it’s not just about getting items off your to-do list, but about getting them off your mind too.
Great post as always Ali – lots of good solid advice. I agree about having down time – I step away from the internet / phones at weekends and that really makes the world of difference too.
That was great Ali. Of all the blogs I’ve subscribed to in the last 6 months to learn about blogging, I can honestly say I find yours easily one of the most interesting, appealing, and oddly enough- relaxing. This was the perfect post for me to read early in the week. Thanks for your work:)
.-= Marcus Sheridan´s last blog ..How to Sell Yourself…Before You Sell All That Other Stuff =-.
thanks, i needed to read this. i can’t wait to use your tips to help with my inability to prioritize which leads me onto the mis-productive path of procrastination.
Thanks Jen! I think I could do with an internet cut-off at the weekend: when I’m away for a couple of days and netless, it’s always refreshing!
Marcus, thank you so much! I’m really glad you’re enjoying reading here. I don’t write a great deal about blogging per se (though I plan to do a bit more in upcoming weeks), but glad you’re finding it all of interest!
Rebecca, good luck! I think prioritisation can be tough, but it’s always doable — even when it means making difficult decisions.
Thank you so much for this post.
True to form – you tend to blog just when I need a helping hand …. and this post is no exception.
I feel that this subject matter will strike a chord with my son.
He is away at present enjoying some work experience in London – and I know that taking time out of his studies is rather overwhelming for him as he has mock exams on his return.
I will forward this blog post to him – as very often – advice is heeded – if it does not come from Mum !
Thanks again
Cai x
All good, don’t have much to add… but here’s what’s been working really well for me lately: Timers.
Time stuff.
Give yourself 1 hour to do something. Or 15 minutes.
Here’s an example. I’m working on a mongo (did I just date myself?) blog post on building custom splash pages on WordPress using Thesis theme.
It’s like pulling teeth. Painful. Tedious. The requirements for accuracy are binary: if it isn’t right, it’s wrong, black and white. Very time consuming to check the php, the css, the html, etc. Along with that, the article has to be readable!
So I’m down working on in 15 minute sprints. That’s all the focus I put to bear on it.
It’s working.
Cai, thanks! Really hope your son finds the post useful too … and hope he’s enjoying his work experience. (I have got a site that I started on a couple of years back at http://www.alphastudent.com which is student-focused advice, and Martin’s http://www.theuniversityblog.co.uk is a fantastic resource with lots on time management etc.)
Dave, great point about timers, if I’m really struggling to focus on writing I sometimes set a timer. It’s surprising how much you can get done in 15 focused minutes! Also, knowing you’ve only got a short burst of time can help with the impulse to check Twitter/emails/Facebook/etc…
I love having lots of projects, it keeps me fresh. However, they do sometimes get overwhelming….and that is when I step back and break things up into small chunks of activity. That way I can start to see specific steps to lead me out of the forest.
.-= Charlotte Rains Dixon´s last blog ..The Things That Scare You =-.
Charlotte, I’m just the same — I like to have a lot going on, so that I can switch to working on whatever interests me at the time! I suspect I sometimes need to break stuff up more, though; it’s so easy to get stuck in that bewildering forest of projects…
Regarding “Finish Smaller Projects First” – I also use it with my TODO lists, especially if I can’t move on. I start with the smallest and easiest taks. It really helps. Thanks for reminding.
Cheers Paul, and yeah, I definitely find that it helps with to-do lists (have been doing that this afternoon, actually, getting some of the little tasks knocked off cos I’m out of energy for the big ones!)
Lately my wife and I have felt overwhelmed with life trying to get caught up with everything. We’ve had much luck with the debt snowball process, but I never thought about applying that process to tasks.
I look forward to giving it a shot!
Best wishes,
Chris
homesteading’s last blog post ..Wordless Wednesday 8-8-12