Simple routine for when you're feeling overwhelmed
DING-DONG. Beep-beep. “Sweetheart, could you just…” Bzzt Bzzzt! Bzzt Bzzzt! “Babe, please come take a look at…” Ring ring! Swoosh. “Whose responsibility was it…”
KA-BOOM.
The last one was the sound of your brain exploding.
We’ve all been there. A quiet morning or, if you’re lucky, even most of the day, when suddenly all hell breaks loose. All heads turn to you, your name is being thrown around the room like its shot out of a Kalashnikov, your phone, email, twitter, and iMessage go crazy all at once, and you feel like you’re supposed to put out a hundred fires all around you, preferably within the next 2 minutes.
What should you do when you find yourself in a cross-fire of information? What’s the best way to deal with stressful situations (and people) that all require your attention at the same time?
BREATHE AND FOCUS
Start by sitting down at your desk, closing your eyes, and taking a big, BIG breath. You might be thinking: “I’ve got an apocalypse on my hands here, ain’t nobody got time for that!”
Yes, you do. Think of that big breath as a reset button. When you get surrounded by too many tasks and people all at once you panic because you’re losing control and can’t tell which fire requires your attention first – where’s the end and where’s the beginning of it all. That big breath takes you out of the midst of things. I literally imagine myself being lifted out of an inferno and looking at it from above. Only then, when you are no longer surrounded and get to look at everything like an outsider can you get a clear perspective on things.
After your big breath, quickly focus your eyes on something right ahead of you – your keyboard, a pen, a notepad. Just for a couple of seconds. And then you are ready get up and make yourself a fresh cup of coffee. For real.
WORK YOUR WAY BACKWARDS
Once you’ve taken the first sip of the hot stuff you are ready to go. Take a notepad and swiftly write down everything that was thrown at you since the craziness begun. One word descriptions, for your understanding only. If you’re not sure you got everything down, try to work your way backwards – who called your name before the phone rang? Whose email did you read when your name was called? What were you doing when the email came in?
SET UP THE PECKING ORDER FROM ONE TO INFINITY
Once you have everything visualised in front of you, you’ll have a better overview of the crisis. You can then assign numbers to various tasks and start tackling them from one to infinity. Don’t spend too much time trying to decide which number to give to each task. The idea is that you are supposed to deal with them all within a very near future, so all this exercise it meant to do it single out the absolute world-ending catastrophes. Sure, your mom called to get the number of your hairdresser before her visit at 8PM. But that email needs to go out BEFORE close of play. Close of play equals 5:30ish. Five-thirtyish comes before eight. Email before mom. It comes down to math, that simple.
And if some tasks don’t have an exact deadline… it usually means they will end up with numbers closer to infinity rather than one. Don’t worry with setting a deadline to a task that doesn’t really require one. Quantitative and obvious deadlines first.
WORK YOUR WAY DOWN AND KICK SOME BUTT
Once you have your list I recommend starting by taking another sip of your coffee and taking another deep breath. THEN it’s time to kick some butt. Work your way through the list and do not forget to cross off an item as soon as it is done. Do not move onto the next crisis before you cross of the finished one – you’ll strip yourself of a phenomenal satisfaction. Hey, you’ve just prevented your brain from exploding and managed to get some things done in the process – you deserve that pleasure!
REMEMBER!
BREATHE.
Focus your eyes on something for a few seconds to hit the reset button.
Write down everything. I know your brain is fantastic, but when it’s on fire it might not be as reliable as you’d like to believe it is, and some important little tasks can easily get lost between huge unimportant time-fillers.
Set due order. Deadlines trump, well, everything else.
Sip your coffee/tea/nectar of gods throughout the process. Partially because it will help you focus and partially because, duh, YUM!
Be sure to reward yourself at the end of a particularly stressful day. You’re awesome.
This way works best for me. What’s your secret to dealing with stressful moments?
Originally published on Marta’s Planet.
