With the holidays nearly upon us, it seems like a good time to take a step back and think a little bit about overwhelm. Because overwhelm is the secret schedule-killer just waiting to derail your holiday plans.

It’s easy to let the hustle and bustle of the holidays and all they entail (gift shopping, cooking, baking, party prep, traveling, mandatory socializing…) to out-compete our every-day to-do lists and leave us feeling that we’re running about haphazardly — like frantic chickens in a panic.

I know I’ve definitely been feeling the pressure for the past week or so.

(Where did December go?)

But, it doesn’t have to be so overwhelming.

Yes, I know you’re looking at your to-do list right now and it’s probably a mile long and so you’re asking the obvious question: How is this not impossibly overwhelming?

And of course, you’re right — it is overwhelming. But it’s overwhelming for a reason, and the reason is that you’ve allowed to-do list madness to take over and now your list is running you, rather than the other way around.

Here’s the trick you need to beat overwhelm.

It’s easy. There’s just a few simple steps.

1. Take a deep breath and try to stop panicking. The panic doesn’t do you any good. It clouds your head, scatters your thoughts, and makes you less efficient at getting sh*t done. The panic isn’t helping so it’s time to step up and take control.
2. Throw out the to-do list. The list isn’t helping either. It’s making you feel more overwhelmed, not less. So rip it out, tear it up, chuck it in the bin, burn it — whatever suits you, really. Just make sure it’s gone.
3. Realize you already know what needs to be done. This is why you need to throw the list out. You already know what you need to do. But the list has grown out of control and now it contains all sorts of things that you don’t need to do, but which would be nice if you got to. Put aside those superfluous tasks.
4. Figure out the most important thing has to get done. What is it? Probably the answer is screaming at you. I have nothing to eat! I’ll have no clothes if I don’t pack! My mother will never forgive me if I don’t bring the Yule Log! What are your mission-critical action items? Stop thinking about all the things you need to do — the real question is what can’t you do without?
5. Now that you’ve figured out the most important thing — go do it! (Why are you still reading this blog post?)
6. Repeat. You’ve finished your most important task! Congratulations. What’s the next most important thing you could be doing? Do that.

The beauty of this simple method is that it totally eliminates overwhelm. It takes your list of10,000 things you “need” to get done and reduces it to one — the one most important thing you can do right now.

And then the process snowballs. Instead of falling into overwhelm and to-do paralysis (that thing that happens when your list is so long that you don’t know where to start), instead you figure out what needs to be done right now and then you do it. Finishing one task builds momentum and suddenly you’re jazzed about your progress — you’re on a roll.

Game over. You just beat overwhelm.

And you packed your socks, too! Double win! And that’s not even the best part.

The best part is that if you really go for it with this strategy I guarantee you’ll achieve way more of the things on your to-do list than you’d have thought possible back when you were still staring at all 6 miles of it and wondering how on Earth you were going to manage.

It’s basically magic.

 

I’d love to hear from you! How are you keeping things sane with the holidays looming? Let me know in the comments.