16 Ways to Manage Overwhelm & Reduce Stress
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Managing overwhelm and reducing stress is an extremely important conversation. This year has brought many challenges and changes and it’s easy to become overwhelmed or completely burnt out if you are not aware of or intentional about your workload and stress levels.
Here’s a list of 16 different ideas and methods that either work for me, or I’ve heard other people having a lot of success with to manage overwhelm and cut down on stress.
1. Empower other people to solve problems.
Empower other people to solve problems and deal with things. A lot of times as a leader or even just part of a team we feel like if we don’t put our hands in something and fix it or do it ourselves, it won’t get done right. You do not have your hands in every single thing. If you find that you’re constantly having to help and do other people’s work for them, empower people to solve their own problems and specifically ask them to step up.
Clarity helps a lot in this regard, be clear and concise with people about exactly what, how, and when you need things from them.
2. Learn to delegate.
Along with empowering people is delegating. Get things off of your plate.
The people who (I think) end up the most stressed out and overwhelmed are people who are control freaks. Delegate to other people, take everything off your plate that you possibly can and give it to other people. This can be hard if delegating is not your strong suit or normal mode of operating, but do it. Especially if you are a leader, get good at delegating to help you and your team.
3. Start saying “No.”
Stop adding things to your plate. When an opportunity comes up, even if it’s awesome and sounds fun and lovely, learn to say no. Get on a strict, steady diet of no. Practice these words, have them ready:
No I’m not able to do that, I don’t have the bandwidth for that, it’s not possible for me to take that on at this time.
Have some boundaries about what you continue to add to your plate.
4. Make sure your work aligns with your strengths.
This one requires a bit of an audit for yourself, but make sure you are doing something either in your job or your life that you’re good at. Doing things that you like to do, and that charge your batteries is healthy and good for the brain and body.
If you are the kind of person that likes to be building something and doing the busy work, make sure that you're not spending most of your job daydreaming and brainstorming ideas and vice versa. Make sure that your strengths and the things that you're good at are being put to work and part of your job/life.
It's a very quick path to being burnt out, and overwhelmed, and feeling super stressed out when you're doing something that is outside of your strengths or natural state of flow.
5. Do something weird, for no reason at all.
One thing that is really serious is do something weird for no reason at all, just no reason.
I dare you to do a karate kick and feel no joy.
6. Put something on your schedule that is outside your routine (every day)
Breaking up your routine, even in little ways can make a huge difference.
Maybe part of your routine every day is taking a walk around your neighborhood; go the other way, change the path that you walk. Take breaks or lunch at a different time, or mix up what tasks you do in which order. Just do one thing every day that is outside your normal routine, that you don't normally do.
We can get into a static place in our brains and bodies when we stick to very specific patterns and routines every day. Shake that up, it can do a lot for your mental and physical state to create more energy and movement for yourself, even in little ways.
7. Create dedicated time blocks in your schedule.
Block out time periods in your day to do certain tasks.
One easy way to feel overwhelmed is to look at everything in the world that you have to do and be like, “Holy smokes, I have to climb an entire mountain.” But if you block out one hour for email, one hour for finishing a proposal that has to be sent, one hour to check in with team members, etc. then you can break your day into bite sized chunks. This is an effective way to release your brain from thinking you have to do everything RIGHT NOW.
8. Set up rewards for yourself in your day.
This one's great if you love chocolate! (I love chocolate).
I do this for myself: get four things scratched off your list and reward yourself.
And that can be with chocolate, but it could be with anything. Find some kind of miniature reward that fits for you; maybe it's that you take 10 minutes and go take a walk or just zone out on your phone or do absolutely nothing at all for 10 minutes. Find little ways to reward yourself for getting productive things accomplished.
9. Diversify your tasks.
Sometimes if my day is jam-packed with work stuff and I also have personal things to get done as well, I mix them back and forth. Do a work thing, do a personal thing, do a work thing, do a personal thing.
Simple, but can help change up the energy of your day and tasks.
10. Get house plants. Talk to them.
Get house plants, do you have houseplants? You should and you should talk to them, it's great. Zero stress, plants are good listeners.
11. Get up early (disclaimer: I’m not naturally a morning person)
This one's hard for some people, I started doing this and I actually love it: get up early.
I generally lose steam every day around 2 or 3 pm, so I've been getting up early in the morning and when I do it feels like stealing hours out of the day.
I get more done from 6:30-7:30 or 7-8am than I do from 3-4pm. So if I start earlier, and stop working a little earlier I spend more time with better energy. Working when you're personally more productive is a really great way to harness productive energy, stay in your flow, and avoid getting burnt out.
12. Take a beat.
Take a pause, take a break, and relax for a moment. I know you KNOW this, but do you actually ever DO it?
For me, I’ll toss some headphones on and zone out the world. Gotta take a second and just chill. The world won’t end, you’ll get to everything eventually, give yourself a break.
13. Pretend you’re someone who enjoys the tasks you generally dread.
This is just a little brain trick for me that can get me going on whatever task I’m avoiding at the moment. Spend one minute or 30 seconds pretending like you're someone who likes to do the thing that you have to do.
Just have a short burst like, “I love to write proposals!” or whatever it is just for a moment, and get into the momentum of doing something.
14. Tiny Victories
When I get overwhelmed, I shut down.
This is one of my favorite personal ones, I call it “Tiny Victories,” and I use it when I get extremely overwhelmed to the point of not being able to get anything done, and wanting to collapse into a puddle on the ground. It helps with the act of getting literally anything crossed off my list, and just celebrating that.
Just do one, next, tiny simple thing that you can do, and have a mini celebration like, “Tiny victory!” and then go on to do one next thing. Rinse and repeat until you’ve completed a bunch of little things, which is actually a big deal when you’re overwhelmed.
It's random, but I love it.
15. Ask for help
These last two go together and they're really great, not used enough in my opinion.
“People who are perfectionists and control freaks are the most overwhelmed and stressed out, and they are also the last ones ever to ask for help.”
Ask for help from someone else. I said it before and I’ll say it again: People who are perfectionists and control freaks are the most overwhelmed and stressed out, and they are also the last ones ever to ask for help.
It does not make you weak or incompetent at your job to ask somebody else to help you out with something. Do it. And likewise, when that person needs help they will ask you too. Learn to rely on and lean on each other when we need it, especially within teams.
16. Ask for grace
This goes hand in hand with asking for help; ask for grace. If you know you're going to miss a deadline, you know that you're stressed out, you're overwhelmed, you're not going to be able to get something done, go to others and ask them to extend you some grace.
That can look like, “I am flooded, I'm not gonna be able to get this thing done,” or “I didn't get this done, can you please extend me some grace,” or “Hey, can we push that deadline back a day?”
Instead of being completely stressed out or assuming that they're going to be upset with you, try asking first. Part of being a team means having each other’s backs. Yes, some things have strict deadlines, we have to use discretion when it comes to certain things in business, but I am certain that when want to, we can find flexibility and support for each other.
Ask for it when you need it, give it when it’s needed. We’re all in the storm together, take care of yourself, take care of each other.
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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop
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