What to Do When You Have Too Many Things to Do? 15 Easy Tips
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it”
Overwhelmed with too many things to do?
Do you sometimes get the feeling that you have so much going on in life that it is too much to handle? It’s like you have too many tabs open at once on a computer, they are all ones that you are using but none of them is getting enough attention, so ultimately, nothing really is getting accomplished.
We all have times like this in life, we just need to know what tabs to close down for a while and what ones to give our full attention to.
The trouble is how you decide when everything seems just as important as the next. The inability to choose what is urgent and what needs our attention now is commonplace and can cause us no end to stress and anxiety in life.
Taking on too much in life can lead to us feeling overwhelmed, so much so that even a small task can leave us feeling confused and anxious not knowing how to complete it or which way to turn. This can then lead to complete inactivity, which brings about more stress and anxiety and a negative cycle ensues.
The good news is that there are ways to break this cycle and by following some simple rules you can have the right tabs open at the right time, get everything accomplished and lead a more calm and harmonious life
Step back, and loosen your grip on everything
Often the problem that we have is we don’t realize just how much we have taken on until it all starts to get on top of us.
We all have commitments that there is no way of dropping. You can’t for example just leave your job or stop looking after your family, these things in life are a given.
Are you taking on too much in these areas though? Do you say yes to everything at work out of obligation when sometimes you could say no?
Do you feel the need to have control of everything at home when you could delegate certain tasks? Step back for a moment and really admit to yourself what you absolutely need to do what you could say no to and what other people could do instead.
You will probably find that there are many tasks that you just don’t need to be doing at all which will free up time for you to concentrate on other areas. This martyr-like syndrome can be highly destructive if you let it take over your life. Let other people share in the responsibilities, you don’t need to be the one doing everything
2. Set goals for yourself
It could be the case that you have so much going on because you haven’t set the right goals for yourself. When we know what it is that we want to be doing it is often far easier to streamline our life. Set short, medium and long-term goals for yourself to keep you on the right track. Knowing what you are doing and how you will achieve it will help eradicate extraneous stuff from life.
Goals are one of the easiest and simplest ways of delegating tasks. Always make sure that you set goals in order of importance. There is no point in setting goals too far in the future and trying to work on them in the present, stick to short, medium and long-term goals and work on them in that order.
3. Learn to say “ No” more often
Do you often put the wrong people or tasks first and then end up feeling guilty? Certain people or situations can make us feel that they are the most important.
Often an employer can place far too many demands on you which can mean you don’t spend enough time with your family. You tolerate this because you feel that you have to, after all, it’s your boss.
In reality, as long as you are doing the job that you are paid to do, then you are fully within your rights to say no to extra work that is not within your remit. Learning to say ”No” more often is an essential habit to get into.
Nobody has an infinite amount of time so if you say “yes” to something that you don’t want to do that will mean that you will be missing out on valuable time doing things that you do want to do instead.
4. Live in day-tight compartments
Dale Carnegie offered great advice when he advocated living in day-tight compartments.
Very often the reason that you feel that you have too much going on and feel overwhelmed by everything is that you are living in the future and stressing about what you are going to be doing.
By learning to live in day-tight compartments you can focus on one day at a time, never stressing about the future because it hasn’t happened and focusing your attention on the tasks in hand for that day only. 3.
5. Make time for yourself
This is an essential point, you need to make time for yourself. You need to have time to relax and rejuvenate. Sometimes having a day to yourself and doing nothing can do more good and can leave you raring to go.
Having no downtime can leave you feeling exhausted, stressed, anxious and no good to anyone.
Make sure that every day you factor in some “me time”. Whether that’s a 20-minute meditation session, a run in the park, listening to a podcast or reading a book. As long as you are doing something that you love and it’s relaxing it doesn’t matter what it is, just make sure you have some time for yourself.
6. Get rid of what isn’t necessary for life
Life sometimes can be like an overstuffed wardrobe, we have things in there that we are never going to wear again taking up valuable space but we just can’t seem to get rid of them.
Take a good look at your life and see if there are things in it that you can get rid of. Do you have certain friends that you spend time with but you would rather not but you don’t want to hurt their feelings? Do you have clubs that you go to because they have become a habit? Do you find that you spend time doing things for other people because they have just come to rely on you to do them?
At first, it can seem hard and almost ruthless to stop doing certain things but over time you will see that it is much better for you.
“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do in life is to relax”
7. Realize the things you can actually do and what you should cut
Are you someone who can’t admit to being bad at anything? Some people try to do everything, even if it is not part of their skill set. This desire to have control over everything in life regardless of whether it is something you are capable of doing can be very destructive. If you can’t do a task, admit it and leave it for someone else to do.
8. Put it all down on paper and have a to-do list
The key to being organised and not being overwhelmed in life is to write down what you need to do and when. This simple yet highly effective tool can be all that you need to stop your life from going into a tailspin.
Well-organised lists will mean that you stay on top of everything and you will be aware of what you have done and tasks that still need to be completed.
9. List your jobs by priority and begin with the most important
The key to writing a successful to-do list is to make sure that you prioritize the most important tasks first. Learning to focus on the urgent tasks to hand first will remove the stress from life and will ensure that you get everything done.
10. Be realistic about what you can achieve
If you are a people pleaser, then you will find saying no to other people hard. You have to be realistic about what you can achieve, there is no point in agreeing to do something if you know that there’s no chance of you being able to do it.
Be realistic with your time and commitments and don’t pile added stress onto your life by committing to things you aren’t able to do.
11. Use chunking to break big tasks into smaller compartments
Chunking is the ideal way to break down large tasks that could be overwhelming into smaller compartments. This means that you can concentrate on the most important aspects of a project first and you can make sure that you don’t miss anything important.
12. Build regular breaks to increase overall productivity
Regular breaks are important to avoid stress and overload. The human brain can only work for a short period without switching off.
Anyone who has tried to cram during a project, revision or a large workload will be able to testify to this. If you don’t naturally take a break, your mind will wander anyway.
The best thing to do is to make sure that your schedule breaks into your projects, you won’t be as tired, or feel as guilty and you will be far more productive.
13. Make sure to get started so you are not overwhelmed by the number of tasks
When you have a lot of tasks to complete, what you don’t want to do is bury your head in the sand and hope that it will somehow disappear. This form of avoidance tactic never works and will leave you feeling more stressed.
What you need to do is make a plan of action for how you are going to manage your tasks and then get started straight away.
This will put you in a better frame of mind and will mean that you are far more likely to do what you have set out to do.
14. Avoid taking on new tasks and responsibilities
We all need some wriggle room in life just in case something unexpected crops up. You need to be sure that you don’t take on too much, even if you feel that you have the time as you never know what is around the corner.
You always want to be in a position where you can cope with the tasks that you have and where you still have some quality time left over for yourself. You need to learn to say no to people if they try and pile too much on top of you.
15. Don’t fall into the perfection trap
This is a tricky one because most of us take pride in our work and want to be performing to the best of our abilities. There is a difference though between having pride in whatever you are doing and doing the best that you can and being a perfectionist.
If you try to be a perfectionist, you will find that you begin to pile too much pressure on yourself and this in the end will serve no one. Instead, strive to do the best that you can and be happy with that.
Final Thoughts
If you find that you constantly ask yourself what to do when you have too many things to do, then following the above tips will help you to answer this question.
By learning to focus on what is important in life, saying no, setting goals, and prioritising we can start to lead more stress-free and harmonious lives.
Life is all about balance, doing too much of one thing and not enough of another is going to knock you off-kilter.
Learn to make yourself the focus of your life and don’t try to do everything. A more simple life is a happier life.
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