A fresh start starts with getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Write down what’s overwhelming you, and patterns will show up.
We are constantly served new information in the digital era we live in, and I think it’s making us feel overwhelmed. Especially social media and the “perfect” lives we see online. Even though we know most of it is not true, it still affects us daily. When you work from home, this noise doesn’t stop when you close your laptop, so it piles up, and it’s easy to end up feeling overwhelmed without noticing how you got there.
Know your ‘why’
When you’re feeling exhausted or overwhelmed, try asking yourself, “Why am I feeling this way?”
I want to give you a real life example, because it might help you see your own struggles or patterns.
I have another blog where I share my gluten free recipes. It’s new, and I’ve been working on it for a couple of months before it went live. I’m trying to film new recipes every weekend.
But I’m also a corporate girl, working full time from home and on this blog. Work from home and stress can go hand in hand, because there’s no clear line telling you when to stop.
I try to listen to popular food blogger podcasts, and take all the tips I can get. But then I hear them talking about having to publish a cookbook, being present on all social media, showing up on stories constantly. And I get overwhelmed, because I don’t have the time to do all that right now.
My coping mechanism is to pull back. Not a good thing, but I’m learning how to do what’s best for me instead.
Questions that can help
When you find yourself in a situation like that, take a ‘step back’ and try to see the bigger picture and what is happening in the background. Here are some questions that can help (adjust them to your current life stage):
- Is this project too big for me? If so, who can help me with it?
- Can I push this for a couple of days (weeks, months)?
- Is this too complicated? How can I simplify it?
- Do I really want to do this? (If it’s work related, you probably don’t have much choice there, but you can still try to work it out, hopefully)
Notice the patterns
If you can, I highly recommend writing down your thoughts when they occur. Nothing fancy, just take out your phone and use the notes, or journaling app if you have it. Every time you feel overwhelmed, try to take a moment to write down how you’re feeling, what caused it, and where you are in your cycle. That last one might seem out of place, but I noticed that a week before my period comes, I have 0% motivation or will to do anything, except the things I absolutely have to do.
If you work from home, it also helps to notice if the overwhelm hits at a certain time of day, like after back to back video calls.
Understanding why you’re feeling overwhelmed and noticing the patterns will help you plan better, because you will work aligned with your body, not against it.
Start with one simple idea
A fresh start can be as simple as one habit you change, one part of your day you reset. The idea is to find a rhythm that works for you. To get back to my example – I was feeling overwhelmed by everything I thought I “needed” to do. My natural reaction to this feeling is to push everything and not work on it. I would come up with excuses why I can’t work on it at the moment, why I don’t have the time, and so on. The truth is – having too much on my mind feels scary, and that’s how my nervous system reacts to it.
Find what works for you
Then one Saturday night I was scrolling on Pinterest and saw Halloween recipes already popping up, and remembered that’s how Pinterest works, you should create pins in advance. So I thought, okay, let’s see what recipes and ingredients are popular for autumn, made a new spreadsheet for it, and ideas started flowing in. See, I love to plan and organize. Sometimes I think I love the idea of new projects so I can make new plans, spreadsheets, and trackers.
Kinda reminds me of playing Sims when I was younger and being so enthusiastic when I create the house, plan how to organize and furnish it, and once it’s done, I’d get bored pretty quickly (please don’t judge me!).
How to give yourself a fresh start
This works because it’s a fresh start that doesn’t feel overwhelming. Instead, the idea behind this is to pour every thought you have onto a blank canvas. Every question, judgement, insecurity you might have. Once you do it, you will see that it’s not so scary after all. A mountain can feel big and frightening, but when you approach it, you also see how beautiful it is. And you see all the wonderful secrets it holds for you to explore.
What you can use
- Paper notes – the simpler, the better
- Digital planners – perfect for having everything in one place
- Phone notes – for me, the best for quick notes
What to do next
Once you have everything written down, see if the solution is already there. Sometimes it’s staring right at us, but we’re too occupied to see it.
This is a beginning, a fresh start. Observe your notes and notice the ideas that come up. I hope this little “hack” helps you feel lighter and less overwhelmed, and more in tune with yourself.
Let me know what you think, and if you have similar tricks that work for you!
