As you can see, change is afoot in the Ritchie household. We received an unexpected surprise when we found out that our landlord was selling our house. Fortunately, we were able to secure a new rental within a week and are now packing our life into these banana boxes (best idea for moving ever!).
The challenge for me (apart from the whole "moving house thing") is that I am currently swamped. I have my full-time job, a big design project on the go, an artwork commission, a family member in hospital and a publishing commitment for my new felting book. The initial feeling of overwhelm was, well, overwhelming!
I’m wired to complete everything as promised and not let anyone down – but doing everything is sometimes not logistically possible. Overwhelm can quickly lead to anxiety or burnout, which can be debilitating and affect your health and well-being. Sometimes you just have to say "I can't do it all” and be OK with that, without heaping additional pressure on yourself.
When facing moments of overwhelm, the first thing I do is pause to give my brain some space; to put thoughts in order and stop my mind and heart from racing.
Then, I’ll 'triage’ of all my priorities. First off, I rank the priorities in order of importance and make sure to clear away any small/quick tasks or tasks that might be blocking other tasks (for me or others).
Tasks with an immovable deadline (like a moving date) will always have priority over tasks that can be rescheduled (like my book publishing date – much to my disappointment). I'll also look for tasks I can delegate or postpone, or chip away at in any spare time. Under this type of scrutiny, I often realise that the true priority of things that demand my attention may not be as ‘urgent’ or ‘important’ as I once thought.
Does that process mean that the feeling of overwhelm goes away? Not completely, but the way ahead feels much more achievable once I have a plan. Goals and plans help me to move forward, even if it is one baby-step at a time.
How do you deal with overwhelm?
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