So maybe you’ve scheduled too many things in your calendar and now you have to make a decision. Do you do go to those meetings? Will you make it to work on time? Do you push that paper aside till tomorrow? Do you get lunch, or skip because you’re too overwhelmed with everything that is going on and you need to hustle to just get the bare minimum done?
If this sounds like you you may need to de-stress your life. Believe me, this is me too. I am in it with you. The January lull has turned into the near-February hustle and we’re all down to the wire to accomplish and complete everything that we optimistically told we would do a couple weeks ago. This is of course very normal. We all want to do it all, and sometimes we forget that we agreed to so many things, even if we were good and put it all in our calendar.
But there’s some times where you can’t please everybody. You cannot be everywhere at once- you are not Superwoman. So here are some tips to deal with your stress and actually move on from your panicked crazy into doing what you actually need to do.
Take a deep breath and… just breath.
Look at your list of things to do, and circle the most important: the things that need to get done the soonest.
Break each of those urgent tasks into smaller tasks that you know you can manage by themselves. I.e, if you have a paper due tomorrow, write the first paragraph. You will have accomplished a small but significant portion of that work and you will get into the groove of what needs doing next.
If you’ve got plans to confirm or cancel, make sure you’re sure about what you can and cannot do and just say so. Don’t let your fear of disappointing other people’s expectations make you so anxious or stressed out that you fear approaching them about the issue. Explain the conundrum. Say sorry if you can’t make it. And simply make sure you are more careful about what you promise to attend in the future.
Very important: put away your phone. Do not drift to YouTube or Facebook. In fact, try not to drift to other work that is also important. Focus on one important thing at a time and you will feel better for it.
Give yourself a treat after completing each task. By that I mean get up, walk around, sing a song, but do not drift into other unproductive tasks. This break is to get you into the next task’s mindset. You can even talk to yourself if you need to. By explaining to yourself what you need to do next, and what you’re going to include in whatever task you have in front of you, it refreshes your knoweldge on the task and gets to re-interested in doing it.
If all else fails, eat some chocolate and remind yourself that whatever it is that you’ve got to do will not affect you as a person. You will still be you and you will be all right!