Speaker 1: Welcome to before breakfast, a production of I heart radio.
Speaker 1: Good morning, this is Laura. Welcome to the before breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to feel less overwhelmed when
Speaker 1: you know you have a very busy stretch of time
Speaker 1: coming up. Getting clear on what needs to happen and
Speaker 1: designing these things a time can make even a huge
Speaker 1: pile of work feel far more doable. I am always
Speaker 1: telling people to try setting a weekly planning time. Plan
Speaker 1: on Friday's is rule number two in my upcoming tranquility
Speaker 1: by Tuesday book. For a reason. I think twenty minutes
Speaker 1: or so of weekly planning, where you look at the
Speaker 1: whole week and ask what's important alongside what's happening, can
Speaker 1: let anyone feel more in control of even a busy life.
Speaker 1: But I recently received a question from a listener who
Speaker 1: wasn't sure about this planning. She wrote that sometimes looking
Speaker 1: at everything that had to happen and everything that hadn't
Speaker 1: happened from the previous week made her feel overwhelmed. She
Speaker 1: then had a hard time relaxing going into her weekend
Speaker 1: because she felt so far behind. I can certainly sympathize.
Speaker 1: We have all gone through periods when we feel like
Speaker 1: we are drowning. However, I would note that the volume
Speaker 1: of stuff you are facing is going to be the
Speaker 1: same whether you know what you're facing or not. When
Speaker 1: you know what you're facing, you can make more rational
Speaker 1: choices about what to tackle. For instance, when we don't
Speaker 1: know the whole scope of work we need to do,
Speaker 1: we tend to do whatever is blinking brightest at any
Speaker 1: given moment, or we do what ever someone is yelling
Speaker 1: loudest about when they're telling us to hurry up with it.
Speaker 1: But it makes no sense on Monday to do something
Speaker 1: smaller that is due on Friday when there is something
Speaker 1: big that's due on Wednesday that we could make serious
Speaker 1: progress on. Instead, when we look at everything we have
Speaker 1: going on, we might also get the courage to offload
Speaker 1: a few things. Maybe you can't keep all your commitments
Speaker 1: this week, or maybe you need help. When you see
Speaker 1: this ahead of time, you can approach this in a
Speaker 1: more humane way then when you are scrambling at the
Speaker 1: last minute. Now, if you continually see each Friday that
Speaker 1: you have undone things from the last week, this can
Speaker 1: nudge you to make more rational choices. We are not
Speaker 1: going to get any more hours in the day. So
Speaker 1: perhaps your idea of what can fit in a day
Speaker 1: or in a week's problematic. This is good to know,
Speaker 1: rather more than continually creating expectations that you won't be
Speaker 1: able to meet. Knowing what we need to do also
Speaker 1: allows us to make good choices about things that come up.
Speaker 1: For instance, the week that I am writing this episode,
Speaker 1: I have committed to doing several things with my kids.
Speaker 1: I also have the usual complement of work stuff. I
Speaker 1: had been feeling a little bit overwhelmed about all this,
Speaker 1: but I saw that Thursday was mostly free. This emboldened
Speaker 1: me to keep it free from all other little calls
Speaker 1: or meetings, so I could hunker down and work straight
Speaker 1: from eight am to three PM, and when I did
Speaker 1: this I was able to get much of the heads
Speaker 1: down work done that I needed to do. In any case,
Speaker 1: I sometimes think of time as a rapidly moving river.
Speaker 1: When you don't know what you are facing, it's like
Speaker 1: shooting rapids in a dark cave. Now that is scary.
Speaker 1: When you do know what you are facing, you're shooting
Speaker 1: those rapids in a brightly Lit Canyon. The experience is
Speaker 1: still going to be intense and you'll need to pay
Speaker 1: attention and work hard, but at least some of the
Speaker 1: terror is gone. You can make better choices and how
Speaker 1: you navigate the river, which increases the chances of coming
Speaker 1: out strong on the other side. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on twitter, facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at before breakfast pot that's B e, the
Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast P O d. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at before breakfast podcast at iheartmedia
Speaker 1: dot com. That before breakfast is spelled out with all
Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much. I look forward to staying
Speaker 1: in touch. Before breakfast is a production of I heart radio.
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