4 Best Task Management Skills For When You're Overwhelmed

So you feel like you're drowning and all you want is a life raft. By the end of this video, you'll know the four best task management skills for when you're overwhelmed and you'll know which one will help you the most right now, because the last thing I want to do is add to your overwhelm.

Watch the video below or read on for the full transcript.

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Helping my clients tackle overwhelm is one of the main things I do inside my coaching membership. And now it's your turn. So let's go.

Overwhelm scenario #1: do you just need to budge something in order to feel like you can breathe again? If so, I recommend using the 80/20 rule, which I've talked about more in depth in this video. Essentially the 80/20 rule means that 20% of the tasks on your plate that are overwhelming you--if you were to get them done-- would have 80% of the benefit. So, set a timer for five minutes, brain dump all the stuff that's overwhelming you, and then set a timer for five minutes again and circle the 20% of the things on that list that would give you the biggest bang for your buck to get them off your plate.

Overwhelm scenario #2: do you feel like you're stuck paralyzed on the sofa or do you feel like you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off? If that's you, you need to focus on transitioning from where you are now to one of the tasks that would feel good to get off your plate. I talk a lot about transitions in this video and I talk a lot about the polyvagal ladder in this video. So you can check those out later.

Usually the simplest way to get yourself going is to physically start moving your body. More often than not, when you're feeling stuck or you feel like you're going crazy, you're having a hard time moving at all. So if you're stuck on the sofa, wiggle your big toe, wiggle it until another toe wiggles with it. And very slowly, this can take five to ten minutes, wiggle up your body until your whole body feels capable of just standing up off the sofa. This may seem like not enough, but it is Magic. If you struggle with being stuck on the sofa.

If you're struggling feeling like you're a chicken with its head cut off and you're running around, flailing your arms, not getting anywhere. If that's you it'll help a lot to ask yourself, are you understimulated or overstimulated in any way? And depending on what the answer is, do something to balance that out. So if you're overstimulated, maybe put on some noise canceling headphones, lie down with an eye mask for like five or ten minutes, just to help yourself chill out. If you're under-stimulated do something with your hands that doesn't necessarily take a lot of brain work. You can use a fidget toy, you can do a craft, you can play a game, do something that's a little bit more physical and tactile, and that might help smooth you out and calm you down, so that way you can move into a task that you need to start working on from a common centered place.

By the way, if the idea of proactively transitioning blew your mind just now, write "Transition" in the comments below.

Overwhelm scenario #3: do you need to wrap your head around everything on your plate in order to feel like you have any sense of control? If that's you set a timer for five minutes and do a brain dump of everything that's on your plate then after you've got this longer list of all the things that are overwhelming you, you want to use a priority matrix. I'll put a simple priority matrix here, but it's the idea that you're categorizing your tasks based on whether they are urgent or not, or whether they're important or not. And you'll likely have a distribution of your tasks that might help you start feeling a little less overwhelmed. Doing this simple exercise can be a really simple, clear, fast way to really wrap your head around everything that you're dealing with and help you start triaging and actually making decisions about what to work on next.

Bonus tip: If part of why you're overwhelmed is you're struggling with a lot of overwhelming emotions, I recommend trying my Anytime Pages journaling technique. So check that out next.

And lastly, overwhelm scenario #4: Do you struggle with focusing on what you've decided to do? If that's you, I recommend trying either task batching or themed days.

To explain task matching versus theme days, I'm going to use the analogy of making Christmas cookies. So let's say you've got three different Christmas cookies to make. You've got sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies and krumkake, cause I'm Norwegian.

Task batching would be doing the same type of task from each of those recipes all together. Get out all of your ingredients for all three recipes first. And then you would measure out your ingredients all at once. And then You would put ingredients into the appropriate bowls per recipe. See where I'm going with this. You're basically handling all of your big projects at once. You're just doing the same kind of task for each project together. That can help if you are struggling with task switching, if your brain has a hard time moving from one type of task to another. So instead of task batching, you can do themed days where day one you do sugar cookies and you just do it from step one all the way to the end. Cookies are done. Day two, you do your gingerbread cookies. Start at the beginning, go all the way until they're all done. Day three, same thing with the krumkake.

Depending on what kind of projects and tasks are on your plate right now, either task batching or themed days--one of them is going to feel easier for you to tackle. And that's the point here because you're overwhelmed and you need an easy win. So pick the one that feels easy, more natural to you, and go with that.

Now, you know exactly how to conquer your overwhelm based on what you're dealing with right now. But what if you're struggling with procrastination and resistance too? If that's you, I highly recommend checking out my free masterclass where I teach you three mindset shifts and one simple three-step system to help you kick procrastination to the curb. All you have to do to get access is go to this link and sign up.

Check out this video next to learn even more about proactively transitioning.

And if you liked this video, hit that like button and subscribe and be sure to share it with your friends. I'll be back next week with another video. See you then.