6 Things I'm Doing To Avoid Being Overwhelmed & Burnt Out

Feeling overwhelmed isn't something that is always a negative thing, sometimes it can come from a really positive place. But that doesn't always mean it feels that way and it can feel like your brain is caving in. And a feeling that isn't too far away from feeling overwhelmed is being burnt out. Which is far from positive but the two things have one thing in common and that is that they usually lead me to end up doing absolutely nothing. And of course, that only adds to the intensity of the feeling so here are a few ways that I've been avoiding becoming burnt out lately and dealing with a sense of overwhelm.

1. STOP, FOR JUST A SECOND

When you're super busy and you have a lot on your plate the last thing that you probably want to do is stop. I know that when I have a tonne of things on my plate that the last thing I think about is stopping and slowing down because that isn't going to get my to-do list ticked off. And it doesn't have to be for long at all, even 5 minutes can make a difference but it's so important to just stop. Your world will not fall not fall apart if you for a few minutes and let your brain take in what you're doing.

2. MAKE A LIST

We all know at this point that I'm an absolute sucker for a good list and there is no denying how useful they can be. It has to be a good list though that is functional and manageable as just writing absolutely everything that you need to get done down is only going to lead to you feeling more overwhelmed and no-one needs a to-do list that is as long as them. So things that I always do when I'm making a list of some sort is to;

Put everything that is a must do at the top.
Keep all life tasks separate.
Make sure all the not so fun tasks get done first so they're out of the way.
Put general time stamps at the side of each task.

3. STICK TO A ROUTINE [OF SOME SORT]

I'm a stickler for a routine, there is no denying that and once I'm in a good routine I find that I'm much less likely to burn out and become overwhelmed by everything that I need to do. But sometimes it's not easy to be in a solid routine where you have general time scales of what you're doing and things can all too easily go out of the window when you're incredibly busy and just trying to get everything done. For me, when I can't stick to a solid routine I try to do still do the small little things that I love in my routine. And so often it's the small things that can make a huge difference to your mood and how we feel throughout the day.

4. SAY NO

Saying no is not something that I'm good at and I will try to do everything I can before I have to turn something down or say no I can't do something with a loved one. But there are only so many things that we can put in our schedule and we don't have all the time in the world as much as we might like to. And saying no always feels really hard, especially when it might mean letting someone else down but so often it's necessary. Even though it feels hard it's something that I'm such a big advocate of as it's important to serve yourself before anybody else. Because leaving yourself burnt out and overwhelmed ultimately doesn't do anybody any good.

5. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT

This most definitely doesn't go for feeling burnt out but sometimes when you're feeling overwhelmed it can actually be a little bit of a motivator. Not always, but sometimes and this is when I like to take advantage of that feeling and use it to my advantage. Like I said, it's not all the time but often it can be like feeling scared for me and nothing makes me want to get things done more than feeling a little scared from time to time for some reason it's such a big motivation to me. It's funny how an emotion that is often perceived as such a negative thing can result in something positive.

6. CUT YOURSELF SOME SLACK

I'm not sure I know anybody who cuts themselves any slack when it comes to work. I'm pretty sure we've all got to the point where we believe we're superhuman and can take on a million and one tasks, get everything done in one single day as well as doing things in life that we really enjoy like seeing our loved ones. And it's not something that I'm good at but it's something that I'm trying to do. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if I don't get every single thing ticked off my to do list but what does matter is my physical and mental well being. Being burnt out and so overwhelmed that you've stopped getting anything done isn't a good thing at all and then coming back from that is much harder than cutting yourself a little bit of slack in the first place. We're all so much more critical of ourselves than anybody else is and the things we expect from ourselves border on the ridiculous sometimes.