Overwhelmed? 7 Strategies to Simplify Your Life Right Now

I remember the exact moment when I realized just how overcommitted I was.

I sat at our kitchen island that Sunday evening with my laptop propped open, updating my bullet journal for the week ahead. I went through my normal routine of checking my calendar and browsing through my long list of tasks in Todoist, before neatly penning them into my weekly agenda.

Already, the stress of everything I had to do was weighing on me, especially after coming off a weekend full of social activities. {If you're an introvert like me, you totally understand how draining socializing can be!}

An email suddenly popped up on my screen, asking me a simple question. A question I could easily say no to, but the fact that someone was asking me to commit to yet another activity proved too much.

I just broke.

I'm not normally a crier, but the pressure had built up so high that all it took was a little email to send me over the edge. And to the edge I went. Crying. Sobbing. Acting like a 7-year-old whose sister had just touched her favorite Barbie doll.

My sweet husband let me get it all out {after 10 years, he knows not to “fix” anything—at least not yet}, then helped me put the pieces back together, including a politely written “no” to the email that sparked the ultimate meltdown.

I swore to myself I would never let my schedule get that bad again. So I began searching for practical ways to add more simplicity and margin to my life, and have been practicing them religiously ever since.

If you find yourself in an over-committed mess and running without room to breathe, then consider these 7 simple strategies your saving grace.

1. Braindump Everything in Your Mind

The first defense against massive overwhelm is to implement a brain dump. If you're not familiar with a brain dump, this is when you take a blank sheet of paper and spend just 5-10 minutes writing down every task and project that come to your mind.

Here's why this step is so important: When too many to-do's float through your mind, they have a tendency to become bigger headaches than they actually are. There's something about a task being written down in black-and-white that helps you say, “Hey, I can totally tackle that.”

If you're interested in learning more about brain dumps, sign up for my FREE Priority Planning Mini Course. I'll guide you through a brain dump from start to finish, including how to organize all the information you write down, as well as set up every week for success going forward.

2. Don't Say YES Unless It's a No-Brainer

Once you've had a chance to clear your mind, I want you to be intentional about all the things you allow back in.

For instance, someone once told me that you should not say yes unless it's a “Oh-my-word-I-absolutely-have-to-do-this YES!” Putting every decision or commitment through the test of whether you can answer this way makes saying yes a whole lot easier, because you don't have to spend copious amounts of time weighing all the pros and cons.

As a blogger, I'm presented with new opportunities every day. But if I don't get overly excited about it, then I know my answer. That in itself has helped relieve many would-be responsibilities.

By the way, if you're a people pleaser who has a hard time saying no, one book that really helped me understand my limits was The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst. I took so many notes that I had to write an entire post about the 7 critical lessons I learned while reading it!

3. Scale Down Your Commitments

If you've said yes too many times, you might feel overwhelmed because you've overcommitted yourself. Whether your calendar is full of PTA meetings, various church events, or any other activities where you've volunteered to help out, it might be time to reconsider everything you've signed up for.

I totally get that it's uncomfortable to back out of things. I once had to explain multiple times to someone why I couldn't help out anymore because they just didn't get it. Even though I squirmed through the entire conversation, I felt incredible relief afterwards because I knew it was the right thing!

Remember this—YOU know yourself best, and that means you also know what you can and cannot handle right now. Trust that instinct.

4. Let Some Things Go for This Season

I totally get that it's hard to scale back and let things go, especially if they are really good things. But just because you have to let something go now doesn't mean you'll need to ignore it forever.

Think of it this way—your life will always migrate through various seasons, and I don't just mean Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Instead, I define life seasons by what is happening in your life right now.

• Some seasons allow for more activities;
• Others require you to scale back to just the essentials.

For the longest time, I didn't even think about decorating my house because I was in the throes of building an online business. Now, as I've hired out more online tasks, I've had more time to dedicate to how my home looks. I even took a course on how to best move forward with my vision, so I'm not stressed about all the decorating decisions.

Maybe you want to build a side business, but you have little ones at home right now who make finding a quiet hour to work almost impossible. Or maybe you have a full-time job outside the home, and you can only manage frozen pizzas and boxed mac-and-cheese for dinner most nights.

Remember, this is just a season. You will get through it!

5. Break Bigger Projects into Smaller Steps

Now that you've scaled back to the essentials, your to-do list should be a little less overwhelming. But even if you still feel anxious about how to get everything done, this easy trick makes all the difference in the world.

1. Take just one of your to-do's,
2. Break it down into smaller steps
3. Focus on finishing that one task. That's right, just that one!

Instead of a million little things to do, you have one. 

Knowing that a long list stresses me out helps me be much more careful now about how many tasks I put on my daily to-do list. I used to keep lists that were 10-15 tasks long, and I would only get more and more discouraged when, by the end of the day, I had only crossed off three.

But now I purposefully fill my bullet journal daily pages with lists that are at max 7-8 tasks long. I'm much more focused, and I actually finish bigger projects now that I've taught myself to break them down into achievable steps and organize them in my schedule.

6. Organize Your Schedule

After all, overwhelm can often occur not because you have too much to do, but because you're not sure where to fit everything in. Keeping a schedule that is fairly the same from day-to-day will help you learn what tasks you can manage in the 24 hours you have—and where you need to build margin into your life.

Of course, not every day will go according to plan, but at least you'll have an idea of what you're shooting for. Then when your schedule gets off track, you have a template to return to tomorrow.

I find organization makes all the difference in being intentional about your day, rather than being on the defensive and reacting to everything that comes your way.

7. Get Enough Sleep

Lastly, there's only so much you can do to streamline your schedule. More often than not, lack of sleep is to blame. I'm the type of person who needs at least 8 hours every night to function. Believe me, I wish I could get away on only 5 or 6 hours, but my energy bank only lasts for two days before things get ugly!

Want to get more sleep? An evening routine can help you to wind down for the night. I went so far as to implement a Power-Down Hour, which is a technique I learned from the book The Power of When. Basically, you turn off all screens and phones an hour before bed, so you don't get distracted by one more show or one more link.

You then replace those previous binge-watching or scrolling habits with ones that get you in a sleep-induced mindset. Try these:

• a hot shower
• setting up your to-do list for the next day
• reading for 20 minutes
• diffusing a relaxing blend of essential oils.

By the time you're finished with your evening routine, sleep should come easier and faster. But even if it doesn't, don't give up just yet. Work your way through this list of 11 easy ways to sleep better tonight, and give it another shot.

I'm certainly not perfect at following all of these 7 tips, but when I make an effort, I see the difference. I feel like I can tackle each day with excitement rather than dread, and I take the time to enjoy what's going on around me, rather than rush right through to the next task or to-do.

I hope this list gave you some new ideas to help you commit to what you can, tackle it all without overwhelm, and create more margin for rest. Even more so, I hope you'll avoid repeating my tragic breakdown! 🙂

How do you manage overwhelm in your life?

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