Overwhelmed is the New Black
Where the fuck do I start?
The hardest part of “getting organized” for me, is that I have no idea where to even start. It’s not that I have zero ideas, oh no. I have a zillion ideas. I have so many thoughts for how I can and how I need to get myself organized and improve my life, that I get overwhelmed and become paralyzed.
In the kitchen? Organize the pantry, clean up the pile of papers/mail/kids’ stuff and design a system to keep it clean, create a sweeping and mopping schedule (and stick to it), sort out the fridge and keep it that way.
In the living room? Find a process to keep the floor clear and toys minimal, finally decorate the walls, keep the side table cleared off consistently, take care of the couches properly.
In our financial life? Create a budget, track the budget, stick to the budget, automate our budget and account tracking, track store prices so I know I’m getting the best.
In my personal development? Read a million books, take notes, do the actions associated with those books, track my goals.
Exercise and health? Determine my goals, research new healthy meals, document the meals we try, track my macros better.
Random? Clean the car, purge the garage, create “zones” in the toy room, discard enough clothes to only those I love.
There are so many ways I want to improve my life, health, marriage and home, that I am overwhelmed with the options and freeze. I have a huge to do list in a to do list app that I will describe in a later post. I track so many items I want to complete, and every day I’m moving 50+ tasks to the next day because I don’t get to them.
Each time I get a new email about a new 30 or 60 day challenge, I jump onboard, add the tasks to my to do list, and think I’m finally ready to accomplish something. “30 days of fitness”, “30 days to an organized home”, “30 days of clean eating”, “30 days of decluttering”. I jump on them all and within two days I have given up mentally. I panic because I’m behind on the challenge, but I keep adding the tasks to my list and moving them to the next day, until they completely build up.
For example, I follow the FlyLady that I discussed in an earlier post. For the holidays, she sends out “Holiday Cruising” missions where you do a daily task related to prepping for the holidays. I don’t find time to do the day’s task, so I move it to the next day, and the next, until all the tasks have snowballed and I have 10+ tasks to do. Impossible! Add up all the 30 day challenges I’m trying to accomplish, and I just don’t know where to start.
I think the best solution at this point is to write out the 10 areas of life that I have seen many times, and write out a few goals for each, and then break down how I can do those goals. Then, I need to focus on not adding any additional goals until I have successfully knocked off some of those goals/habits.
I’ll leave it at that while I take some time to ponder how I’m going to attach this problem going into the new year. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed with the number of tasks you’ve assigned to yourself?
