3. How to regulate when you’re overwhelmed, have too much to do, and don’t know where to start
Overwhelm occurs when your mind is carrying around too many open loops at once:
Emails, deadlines, errands, family needs, business problems, unfinished projects, and on and on.
Everything feels important. Everything feels urgent.
So your nervous system starts treating your task list like a threat.
That’s when you either:
- start trying to multitask (which is anti-productive and doesn’t help)
- or become frozen with procrastination and avoid it all.
Here’s what to do to regulate your nervous system:
- Get everything out of your head and onto paper. Don’t organize it yet. Don’t solve it yet. Just offload it.
- Then, look at your list and organize it using the 125Method™. Here’s how: Choose 1 Big thing, 2 Medium things, 5 Little things that you can do today. Then, write them down and get to work, starting with your 1 Big Thing.
- Here’s an alternative option that’s helpful when you’re overwhelmed by a large project: Ask yourself, “What is the next visible action I can take right now?” Not the whole project. Not the whole week. Not your whole life. Just the next visible action you can take to move something forward. Write it down, and get started.
When you’re clear about how to engage with what you’ve got on your plate, it calms you down by reminding your nervous system that you’ve got a plan in place.
A clearly defined next step is a signal of safety to your nervous system, which is crucial for regulation.
