Overwhelmed
Why are you so damn tired and what can you do about it?
As crazy as it sounds, I've been finding answers to overwhelm in an unlikely place - that towering stack of books on my nightstand.
In this week's book-inspired experiment, we'll explore overwhelm through the lens of 'Overwhelmed' by Brigid Schulte, 'Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle' by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, and Kelly McGonigal's 'The Upside of Stress.'
A mistake. I used to pride myself on doing it all. There is an ongoing debate about whether being busy equals being productive. HealthMatch reported on a study that revealed something fascinating from these books - stress isn't the enemy we think it is. As Brigid Schulte wrote in Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time about the modern "time bind." We're not just managing time poorly – we're caught in a cultural trap that equates busyness with worth.
"This is all very nice," you say, but how do we actually manage overwhelm? Here's a handy five-step sequence inspired by these authors that can help you put these ideas into practice:
Step 1: The Brain Dump
Finding the right method involves trial and error. One thing that I recommend, drawing from the Nagoski sisters' book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, is to uncommit. That's different than just flaking on a commitment you've made. It makes perfect sense when you think about it - their work shows that emotional completion is just as important as task completion.
Step 2: Triage Your Tasks
Quite a bit, it turns out. Cal Newport's "Deep Work" completely transformed how I think about time allocation. Here's why it's so important to do this: the sum of your daily decisions shapes your productivity. But more than that, it determines your wellbeing.
Let's say that again, but in bold: Your worth isn't measured by your productivity.
Anyhoo, let's break down task management into four categories, inspired by Stephen Covey's Priority Matrix. Many good ideas are killed this way - by trying to do everything at once. But I don't believe that. Neither should you.
Urgent and Important: Your "deep work" priorities
Important but Not Urgent: Your "this builds long-term value" list
Urgent but Not Important: Your "needs boundaries" list
Neither Urgent nor Important: Your "permission to let go" list
Step 3: Scheduling for Sanity
If that's you, you'll know what it's like to have the constant uphill battle with time management. As McGonigal explains in "The Upside of Stress," what if we saw stress as a signal that we're engaged with something meaningful? Maybe that sounds silly, but it works so well.
Here's the ultimate moral of the story, drawn from all the books mentioned:
From "Burnout": Complete the stress cycle daily through movement, creativity, or connection
From "Deep Work": Schedule focused work like it's a non-negotiable meeting
From "Overwhelmed": Challenge the cultural assumptions about busyness
From "The Upside of Stress": Reframe your stress response as your body preparing to meet a challenge
I'm curious about your experience with this. When you feel overwhelmed, do you tend to push harder or pause?