How to prioritize when you're constantly overwhelmed

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We define the main thing in life and learn to put it first.

When you're drowning in a sea of tasks and commitments, even deciding what to do first can be tricky. In such a situation, it is important to accept that it is simply physically impossible to complete everything, and to highlight the most important thing. Otherwise, stress and guilt will haunt you.

What should be priority

Everyone will have their own specific tasks, but there are several areas of life that we should all pay more attention to. They are the ones that help you get closer to your long-term goals and make life worthwhile. Yet many ignore them for months or even years. Try to move them to the top of your to-do list.

1. Health

A healthy lifestyle fades into the background more often. We give up walking in the park and workout to get things done, or we choose fast food so we don't waste time cooking.

The results of such decisions accumulate and begin to affect all areas of life. Fast food doesn't provide enough energy to work well. The stress and irritability that comes from not taking care of ourselves can make us feel like we’re at our loved ones. As a result, not only physical well-being suffers, but also mental well-being, the emotional state deteriorates. So remind yourself: health is the foundation of everything.

2. Sleep

Prepare for exams, finish writing a report, stay up late watching a series - we choose anything but sleep. It seems that by reducing it, we will gain a few extra hours for our business. But the price is very high.

You have probably experienced the effects of lack of sleep: tiredness, irritability, inability to concentrate and do something productive. But studies show that the constant lack of rest leads to much more serious problems, from diseases of the cardiovascular system to the deterioration of the brain. Don't neglect sleep.

3. Relationships with loved ones

In moments of stress, we often launch relationships with loved ones, believing that they will not go anywhere and we will just return to communication when we have more time. And so we miss a child's concert because of a workshop, or we forget to congratulate a friend on his birthday because thoughts are busy with business. Such little things accumulate and spoil relationships, and it is difficult to restore them later.

Take time to strengthen family and friendships so you don't have to regret what you missed. Here are some tips to help you do this:

• Take the first step. Don't wait for others to suggest something. Be the one who keeps in touch and invites family and friends somewhere.
• Determine for yourself what you will not miss for anything in the world. At some point, you will inevitably have to make a choice in favor of work or other responsibilities. But there must be situations that cannot be neglected, such as a wedding anniversary or helping a friend in a difficult moment for him.
• Keep in touch. We are all busy, but this is not a reason to lose contact. Call, write, congratulate loved ones on their victories, express sympathy in case of failures, thank and get in touch just like that.

4. Productive work

Working hard and being productive are not necessarily the same thing. You can work from morning to night, but get minimal results. Therefore, it is important to act not only diligently, but wisely: to work in depth, to concentrate on tasks that help to grow, including professionally. Look for and prioritize opportunities that allow you to learn new things and do things that inspire you.

What to exclude from priorities

To move up something on the to-do list, you have to give up something else. Here are some activities you can take to free up your time and energy.

1. Social media and content absorption

Checking out what's new on Instagram or Twitter shouldn't be your priority. Here's what Digital Minimalism author Cal Newport advises: "Focus on a handful of carefully selected online activities that support your values, and skip the rest."

To facilitate this process:

• Keep track of where your time is going. There are special services for this. Once you see how much you are wasting, it’s easier to redirect that time to something else.
• Make it harder for yourself to access. Remove social media apps to avoid boredom access.

2. Tasks of low value

There are always things that take a lot of time, but do not move us forward:

• check mail and answer letters;
• read the accumulated messages in work chats;
• do repetitive administrative tasks;
• fulfill someone's urgent request.

Such a turnover only distracts from the main thing. Remind yourself that you will not achieve big goals if you only do such small things all the time.

3. Negative attitude

We often dwell on unpleasant events and setbacks, doubting ourselves, or getting angry with others. This not only spoils the mood, but also takes up time that could be spent on changes in life. Use the following strategies to avoid getting stuck in negative thoughts:

• Collect a collection of compliments. When someone has said something good, praised, thanked, complimented you, write it down in a notebook or save a screenshot. When you're in a bad mood, rereading the kind words will help you feel better.
• Watch your internal dialogue. When you notice negative thoughts about yourself, imagine yourself saying something like that to a close friend or child. Most likely, you will find that you are too critical of yourself.
• Be kinder. Remember that people may have hurt you because they were experiencing difficulties themselves. But don't forget to be kind to yourself. If you feel that the person is toxic, defend your boundaries or stop communicating.

Putting the important first

1. Combine all tasks

Surely you have a list of work tasks and personal affairs, and various ideas are constantly spinning in your head. It's so hard to figure out what to do first. Therefore, the first step is to collect all the cases in one place and mark by what date they must be completed. To do this, you can use paper or services like Trello and Todoist.

2. Get rid of distractions

Block access to time-consuming sites. You can do this for the whole day or for a certain period when you need to work without distraction. If this is not an option for you, at least turn off unnecessary notifications.

3. Resist the urge to switch to something new

There will always be a new idea or task that you want to tackle. But by switching from one to the other, you will not advance in what you are doing. Even if you get bored, give it a try. Don't give up one habit after a week to try another. Don't take on a new project until you've finished the current one.

4. Distinguish between important and urgent matters

We tend to prioritize tasks with deadlines, even if they are less important to us in and of themselves. But activities such as calling grandma or going for a walk are not a priority, although they just make life balanced and give valuable memories.

Use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize cases. It has four categories:

• Urgent and important: tasks that are valuable to you - they need to be completed as soon as possible.
• Non-urgent, but important: tasks that help to develop - they need to be included in the calendar.
• Urgent but unimportant: tasks that can be delegated to someone else.
• Non-urgent and unimportant: tasks to be abandoned.

Try to do important things as much as possible, and minimize the unimportant ones.

5. Manage not time, but your energy

To do this, you need to determine when you are most productive and distribute tasks based on your energy level. For example:

• If you’re an early riser, put important things to do in the morning when you’re most energized.
• If you're a night owl, do projects that require concentration in the evenings.
• If you have young children, your productive time is when they sleep or someone else is looking after them. Use these gaps for your priority tasks.

6. List your commitments

We often take on too much, even though our energy and time are limited. Therefore, it is useful to periodically review your obligations:

• Make a list as detailed as possible of what you are spending your time on.
• Divide these activities into categories: career, family, hobbies, and so on.
• Decide how much time as a percentage you would like to spend on each category.
• Reduce the number of less important responsibilities so that you have enough resources for the most important ones.
• Make a to-do list each day based on your main categories.

7. Strive to "eat the frog" as soon as possible

A frog means the most difficult or unpleasant thing of the day. For example, working on a project that you dream of doing, playing sports, writing a thousand words for a future book. Usually, you want to postpone such things for later, but it is better to do them first.

This will move you forward and make everything else easier during the day. If you "eat a frog" every day, gradually you will achieve greater results.

8. Distribute tasks in blocks

This will help you build a schedule based on priorities and not waste time switching from one to the other. This is how the method works:

• Make a to-do list for the day.
• Divide tasks of the same type into blocks, for example "Working with mail", "Writing text", "Appointments".
• Calculate how long it will take for each block.
• Add blocks to the calendar one by one.
• Move on to the next one only when you have finished the previous one.
• Move blocks in the calendar if necessary.

Try to have at least one of the blocks every day devoted to your priorities.

Read also?

• 7 effective planning methods to help you stay on track
• How to be more productive: 7 main rules
• 4 ways to organize your to-do list so you can work smarter