We all get stressed and overwhelmed from time to time. In fact, today, I’m feeling this exact same way!
I’ve got a TON of EMAILS that all require me PERSONALLY to be there and more in-depth than just a sentence response or two.
I’ve got a bunch of LOOSE ENDS to take care of, that honestly, I just don’t wanna! I’m not motivated at ALL to take care of them. It’s boring, not fun stuff. And of course, I just wanna do fun stuff. Cue the song…girls just wanna have fun!
You may be feeling overwhelmed and have anxiety right now. Spinning out of control.
We are women. We deal with hormones, okay, and chasing after kids all day and their thousand interruptions!
Yes, I love my kids, but let’s be honest…being interrupted 20 million times a day is hard. Our brains take time to re-calibrate.
There are six things that I’ve really found to help you conquer your overwhelm…today included and one of them (#3), believe it or not, works in 5 seconds flat! 🙂
Conquer Your Overwhelm in 5 Seconds
When I feel overwhelmed to even LOOK at my email inbox:
1) Every morning I wake up and spend 30 minutes to one hour working on my email inbox (personal and business) as well as responding to all comments left on the blog.
Most bloggers HATE this idea and say to stay away from it. Here’s why…
They believe that your mind is the most focused in the morning and taking care of a bunch of loose ends, only gets you MORE scattered. I agree with them….but not for me.
See, here’s what you probably don’t know about me…I’m a NIGHT OWL. My brain and thoughts are fuzzy in the mornings. It literally takes me 2-3 hours sometimes to “wake up” in the morning and get going. I don’t drink coffee – hate the taste of it. Nasty!
So for ME personally, taking care of emails first thing in the morning, when my brain is only half there (lol) works. It really doesn’t require my full concentration. Plus, I feel AWESOME after having tackled it because I’m a type A checklist personality.
For you, that may not work. Okay…do your emails at night, no problem. But the point is to be consistent and do them every business day!
And in case you are wondering, yes, I personally respond to just about every single comment left on my blog.
Why? Listen, if YOU take the time to tell me something, I’m going to listen. It’s as simple as that! I love my audience to pieces!
For me, getting into that mindset and habit of spending an hour on those things is something that keeps those things under control, meaning, they are not piling up like crazy. But there are still times where it gets out of control, like today.
In those times, I go on to #2…
2) I set my timer.
If it’s in the middle of the day, or in the evening and I just don’t want to do it because I’m so overwhelmed, I tell myself, “Okay Sarah, you’re only going to have to do this for 20 minutes, THEN you can work on something FUN that you want to do.”
I mean, we do that to our kids, right?! “Hey, little Johnny…you want dessert??? Eat all your dinner first.”
Same thing. Set the timer for 20 or 30 minutes and just see how far you can get. This goes overcoming overwhelm for organizing your home too and don’t know where to start! It can apply to lots of things.
Usually, what ends up happening is that I get into it and don’t want to stop. I like to finish stuff. So, I finish up OR I set the timer for another 20 mins and see how far I get and THEN, treat myself by doing something FUN that I enjoy. I’ll create printables or take pictures. Whatever it is that’s fun for me. Because YES, you absolutely have to have FUN on your blog (or why do it at all?!?!?!) AND you need to do that stuff you really have to do to run a successful business. It’s always a balance.
When you feel no motivation and don’t know how to stop feeling overwhelmed:
3) Use essential oils
Remember how we were talking about something that helps you conquer your overwhelm in 5 seconds?
This is it! Essential oils.
Listen, I don’t care what ANYONE says, I love my oils. I’ve been using them for about 6-7 years now, back before they even got popular and use them for just about everything. In fact, I would have cancer right now if it weren’t for my oils, but alas, the FDA doesn’t let me talk about it publicly. 🙁
Let’s just say oils (the RIGHT oils- therapeutic grade oils) are AH-mazing. I believe God put everything on this Earth we need. Yes, the medical industry is absolutely needed. Yes, surgery is sometimes needed to, but my oils help me a lot BEFORE I get to that point!!! We must have a balance of both worlds (medical and natural).
One of the oils I like to use when I just don’t feel like doing anything is called Motivate. Another oil that is perfect for overwhelm is Wild Orange. Make sure you are smelling the oils, (as well as putting them on, according to label instructions) as they affect your amygdala gland. That gland stores your emotions and is ONLY ACCESSIBLE by scent!
Have you ever smelled something and it reminded you of someone or something or brought a memory to you?
That’s your amygdala gland working there! Isn’t that cool?!
Another thing I like to do is diffuse my favorite diffuser blend. It’s called Gumdrop. Here’s the recipe:
- 2 drops Peppermint
- 2 drops Lavender
- 2 drops Cardamom
- 2 drops Cinnamon
Seriously, it smells so good.
4) Creating binders to stay organized
As you can see from the picture above, I use binders for literally everything. When I first started using a binder, I saw how much more organized I was. I learned the pages that were in there and it was all in one place. I didn’t have to go around my home in various spots looking for one paper. I KNEW it was in my binder….and I. WAS. HOOKED!
Since then, I’ve created many binders for myself and my audience and everyone loves them as much as I do, which is great! I feel in good company. 🙂
The great thing is that most of the binders are completely free or have large discounts. I believe in rewarding my audience and have worked very hard to create the binders. I really hope you enjoy them. Some of the most popular binders on this site are:
- Medical Binder
- Household Binder – 110+ pages
- Top 50+ Essential Oil DIY Recipes
- Blogging Binder – 180+ pages
- Travel Binder
- Coloring Hope Binder (Christian devotional) – 101 pages
- Cleaning Binder
When I really need to get something done and I’m interrupted a lot…
5) Again, set your timer…but not for you.
This time, you’ll set your timer for your kids. I tell my son, “Okay, mom has to get something important done and I can’t be interrupted. You can play the Wii for 30 minutes (or an hour) but no interruptions, unless it’s an emergency or something bad happens. Do you need anything before we start the time?”
For me, this works every time. I shut my office door, go in to work and he’s playing the Wii in the living room (I can still hear him bouncing around, but it’s not as noisy and it’s enough that I can focus and work). In fact, right this second, in order to get this post done, that’s exactly what I’m doing. 🙂
When I need to realize my purpose is bigger than a to-do list…
6) Pray
Now, why is it, that I listed (thought of) prayer last?! After all those good tips. Shame on me! I should have thought of prayer first!
In any event, praying God will help you and aligning your focus and day to HIS will is super important.
Every morning I like to start my day by praying a small prayer. Something like, “Lord, this is YOUR day. Please help me to focus on what you would have me focus on and keep me on the right path.”
It’s not just some mantra being spoken, I don’t believe in that. It’s a genuine prayer to remind ME, most of all, to keep my eyes on Christ. Which apparently, since prayer was thought of fourth…I need even MORE OF!!! 🙁
We can’t allow ourselves to get sucked up into the world. We have to keep our focus on our purpose, why God put us here, what we’re doing here. Keeping our eyes on the bigger picture. Cardamom essential oil helps us emotionally step back from a situation and gain a bigger perspective. That’s why the Gumdrop blend is one of my favorite blends (besides that blend smelling AH-mazing of course!!!)
Now, if you’ll excuse me, my timer is up and I’m going to go spend some good time with my son. 🙂 🙂 🙂
