Do you want to know how to beat overwhelm? Are you super busy and at the same time, a million thoughts are swirling around in your head, making sure you have a hard time focusing. Or you’re falling asleep in front of the TV because you’re just that tired. So, you do the sensible thing and go to bed just to lie there more or less wide awake because there are things on your mind you just can’t shake.
How to beat overwhelm – Part 1
Too much on your mind + lack of focus = feeling stressed/overwhelmed
This is very annoying and can become really stressful if you do nothing about it. But what?
The clue is in the title, my friend. Brain dump!
How to most effectively brain dump may be a personal thing. Here, I am sharing what worked and still works for me.
As described above, having too much on your mind can really stress you out. And in 2020, I hardly know anyone who would say, “I’m fine, I never have too much going on upstairs.” No, not like that. You know what I mean.
OK, lists.
It was a Saturday. My mind was jumping from topic to topic when I was just trying to focus on writing, researching, or whatever I was doing (I don’t really remember but it was Midlife Motions related). I’ve had enough.
Ok, so I had enough that Saturday. And then, from the middle of that chaos of thoughts, came this idea. I took an old A2 format (420 x 594mm or 16.5 x 23.4 inch) sheet of paper and just wrote all the things I thought I needed to do or mustn’t forget down. No censorship of any kind. No thought was too minuscule. I would not take any chances that whatever I’d leave out would keep haunting me.
And you know what? It did the trick. I felt so. . . relieved, so much lighter and calmer. All the thoughts were still there. There was no need to worry that I might lose them. But they were out of my head and found a safe home on a ginormous piece of paper.
Maybe you should know that I love making lists. Just loooove it. Let’s not talk about the follow-through at this point. There is definitely room for improvement in this area. A work in progress, so to speak. But I’m off the subject.
When I was done dumping all my to-do-thoughts, I gathered all the little pieces of paper I had collected over time. They were full of notes, reminders, to-dos… and every single item was added to the list as well. Then the old notes went straight to the bin. Another liberating moment. Too much drama? I beg to differ. I felt a ton lighter and so much more at ease. Now I could go ahead and put some kind of structure to it. Another challenge for me, but that would be off-topic again.
After that experience, I used this release method in other areas as well.
Once you have it all on paper, you want to move to the next step. Bring things into order and maybe even check if they are really something you want to follow-up on at all. The best way to do that is to divide them into three to four categories:
1. Things you absolutely need to do ASAP because they’re important.
2. Things that would be good if they got them done soon.
3. Things you want to do/get done, but they’re not urgent.
4. Things you might want to do at some point in your life. Yeah, you guessed it, this is the category.
If some things on your list need a little planning, have a look at my posts about the G. R. O. W. method and goal setting. I’m sure they can be helpful.
How to beat overwhelm – Part 2
In bed with lots of things on your mind. Result: Can’t fall asleep = More stressed come morning.
Since you’re still reading this, I’m sure you can relate when I tell you that there were many nights I was lying in bed, dead tired, but couldn’t fall asleep no matter what. There was just too much going on in my head.
There were
- things I urgently needed to do,
- deadlines getting scarily close,
- invoices waiting to be paid,
- things I wanted to look up,
- something I needed to tell my dad but only ever think of it when I’m in bed, the shower, or on the john…
Not only did it drive me crazy while it happened (or didn’t happen if you look at it from the falling asleep perspective). But on top of that, it cost me many precious hours of sleep. Meaning I’d be going through the next day sleepwalking, only halfway functioning, which in turn only added to the things I would have on my mind come bedtime. Rinse and repeat. A vicious circle and something had to give.
One of those nights, I remembered that we got a big notepad during one of our company dos. I got out of bed, got the notepad and a pencil, and started writing everything down that kept me awake.
And again, it worked like a charm.
A super simple and easy thing to do, and yet it had a huge positive effect.
The notepad and pencil are right there with me on my nightstand ever since. I’ve used them a lot since then, and it always worked. The next day it was either done right away or transferred to my calendar with a reminder set.
I’m sure you could use your cell phone for that as well. But I don’t like keeping it too close to my bed.
Let’s recap on how to beat overwhelm.
Does your head feel like a beehive at times because your mind is buzzing with thoughts and it’s driving you mad because you can’t focus? Here’s what you do:
During the day:
- dump all those thoughts on a piece of paper (remember, no censorship),
- add all the little notes (if you have any),
- once you’re done, sort them into categories,
- break them down in bitesize to-dos,
- add them to your calendar or whatever else you use to organize yourself.
You don’t have to do them all on the same day. As long as you get them on that one piece of paper or in that one notebook, you can go from there.
When trying to fall asleep:
- Take a notepad and a pen and put them on your nightstand/next to your bed, where they are easy to reach.
- When you realize you will not fall asleep anytime soon because you’re mulling the same thoughts over and over again, write them down. Do it as detailed as necessary to make sure all the info you need is on that piece of paper. But also make them as short as possible, after all, the idea of the exercise is that you can go to sleep a.s.a.p.
- Good night. 🙂
To avoid as many of these situations as possible, sort out your notes on a regular basis. Like this, you will have everything in one place or system. That makes it a lot easier later when you are looking for something.
It’s funny how it sometimes takes us ages to think of the easiest solutions. Well, I guess, better late than never.
How do you keep your mind in check? Do you have any other suggestions on how to beat overwhelm? Please do us a favor and share them with us. When you do, please bear in mind that not all of us are organized and structured by nature 😉
OK, that’s it from me for today. I hope to see you back here soon.
Have a lovely day and a good restful night!!
All the best XXX
