How to complete your to do list when you feel overwhelmed.
If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by what’s on your to do list or lacking in motivation here are a few actions you can take.
1. Firstly, take a deep breath and take a moment to step out of the panicky feelings that are tying you to this moment. Get lots of oxygen in, move your shoulders away from your ears and focus on filling your lungs.
2. If you have time go and move, a walk is perfect. Our brains are easily distracted and by leaving the scene of where the overwhelm occurred we can encourage our thoughts to move past it.
Once you feel the overwhelm draining out of you it’s time to tackle what needs to be done. I use a simple 3 step method; work out what needs to be done, prioritise and do. However, because no one works at peak potential when they have a million tabs open, we need to clear our mind first. My preferred method is to brainstorm.
Let’s brainstorm
Set a timer for 10 minutes, I want you to free flow everything that is in your head, don’t silo things, your life rarely runs separately so you’ll probably have a mix of work, home stuff, admin, worries, emotions etc. Don’t worry at this point just get it all down on paper.
Brainstorming is simple but there are a few rules to follow:
1. There is no judgment, don’t start writing something down and then think, ‘oh that’s silly’ there is no silly, write everything down, if it’s taking up space in your head it needs space on the paper.
2. No editing, like point one, if you’ve written it down there is no going back and crossing it out. Don’t bother with spellings or grammar, this document is for your eyes only!
3. When you think you are done, add another minute on the timer – you’ll be surprised by the results, it’s something I do with clients all the time. It’s frequently where the most important or best answers lie.
4. Stick to the timer, I know I’ve just said add to the timer but really, no longer than 11 minutes. Having the time restriction prevents procrastination and really focuses the mind.
If you want to know a bit more about brainstorming, then check out my post here.
2. Let’s prioritise
Now we can begin to prioritise what needs to be done, you can do this anyway you wish, use any method you are comfortable with. I use an Eisenhower matrix, which is a grid that you add your tasks to. Each quadrant represents a different action: do, decide, delegate and delete.
Do – tasks that need to be done urgently.
Decide – tasks that need to be done but can be tackled later.
Delegate – tasks that other people can either help or complete.
Delete – tasks that don’t need to be completed.
I go into the matrix in greater detail on this blog post but here are a few guidance points:
1. Every task from your brainstorm should be plotted on the matrix.
2. Define what urgent it before you start, tasks must be done this hour, day, week etc.
3. Be disciplined, not every task can be urgent.
4. Aim to delete at least two tasks as a minimum!
5. If you are finding delegation hard, perhaps have a think about how you could make it easier to delegate tasks, training etc.
6. If you are struggling to delete tasks, then try writing potential deletion tasks on a separate list and then return to the list in a week or so to see if anything has happened because those tasks have been ignored.
After these processes you should be left with a list of prioritised tasks, taking us on to the final step.
3. Getting it done.
Again, there are lots of different methods you can use to work through the tasks, a list is just fine, nothing fancy is required. However here are a few of my favourite techniques that I use for different tasks or circumstances.
Group similar tasks together
When you look at your list if you have quite a few similar tasks such as responding to emails you might want to try time blocking. Because we find so many time efficiencies by not having to swap from one type of task to another it makes sense to group these tasks together and then have a single block of time allocated to getting these tasks completed.
Time blocking is a simple tool where you break the day into time blocks of your own design and complete set work within them. The reason it’s an effective method is because it creates focus, has a time limit, allows us to get into a flow by doing repetitive type tasks together and can even be managed around the times of the day that work best for us. For example, I am sat writing this blog post in a time block with other blogs because it’s easier for me to get into a writing flow once than it is to keep swapping. You might want to consider blocking some things at certain times, perhaps your concentration wains after lunch so create blocks in the morning for high concentration jobs.
I really enjoy time blocking and find it useful when my day looks a little fragmented and it is easy to think that being productive isn’t going to happen because I only have an hour here or there. If we flip that, and instead frame it that I have a block of 1 hour to achieve X I know which one motivates me the most! If the template below looks like something you’d like to explore you can find it here
Low hanging fruit – easy and quick tasks
If you can see lots of (what you perceive to be) quick and easy tasks, then using the Pomodoro technique might be good. The Pomodoro technique is timed sessions of 25 minutes with a break of 5 minutes, just repeated until you’ve completed the tasks you want to. I use it if I have a long task to complete where my enthusiasm, motivation, will to live may diminish quite quickly. Short sprints of 25 minutes help maintain my concentration. Feel free to adapt the timings to suit yourself but I wouldn’t go much longer than 25 minutes and I’m sure this technique is more effective if you invest in a tomato timer, but I can’t confirm this! Click here to read more.
Awful tasks – the tasks you want to ignore!
If you have a task or tasks that you really, really don’t want to do then I recommend the ‘eat the frog’ technique. Eating the frog simply means doing the thing you don’t want to do first. Either first thing in the morning or first on the list, either way you start there. We all know just how bad procrastination can make things, simple tasks ignored start to cause big problems, the sick feeling starts to escalate, impacting your mood and mindset. The relief you feel when that task is out of the way is incredible and how many times is the task easier than you imagined! So, go eat the frog!
Billy basic lists
There is nothing wrong with a list, it gets the job done and can feel very rewarding when you cross items off. If you find lists are your preferred method, then you might want to check out bullet journaling. I use a variation where I have a weekly rolling list that I pull from each day depending upon urgency. It contains every part of my life not just work and rolls forward week on week if I don’t complete the task, so nothing gets forgotten.
If you haven’t been sticking to any of the techniques or tools in this blog and find yourself at the end of the day wondering what you’ve achieved, then this is where a ‘done list’ comes into you play. A done list is just that, list everything that you’ve done and notice what you have achieved but perhaps didn’t acknowledge.
My last point to make is about productivity in general. Feeling productive is something lots of strive for, we feel more positive and love to feel like we’ve achieved something. However, my word of caution is that being productive should free up time for us to do things we want to do not just complete more tasks.
So how will you tackle your to do list tomorrow now?