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Do you ever feel overwhelmed, by how much you've got to
do, how much clutter there is in your home? I'm Rachel Papworth,
from Green And Tidy. I help people all over the world declutter and create homes they love,
and in my experience overwhelm is the biggest barrier to people clearing their clutter.
It's that sense that it's this huge job,
and you don't even know how long it's gonna take you, and
it's just...You can't even bring yourself to start it. So, I do a lot of work
with my clients around overwhelm, and overcoming it. And what I want to talk to you about today are
the two main weapons in overcoming overwhelm.
There's lots more that you can do but these two are your
biggest bazookas against overwhelm. So, the first one
is your "to do" list. Grab a piece of paper and a pen
and write down everything on your "to do" list.
Write it down even if you don't want to do it. Write it down even if you don't know
how to do it. Write it down if it's a small task. Write it down if it's a big task. Write it down if it's urgent. Write it down if
it doesn't need to be done for six months. But write down
everything that's on your "to do" list. Then, go back over that list
and break it down. Break down the big tasks
into smaller tasks. So, if you've got a big thing to do,
like clear the entire house of clutter, break that down
into rooms. Break it down into sections of rooms.
And that goes for all the tasks on your
list. You can also take a look and see if there's
anything on your list that you actually don't want to do, and see if there's an action you can
convert that into,
for example asking somebody else to do it, or letting somebody know that you're not going to do it.
Then roughly estimate how long each task
on your list is going to take, and then pull out your second weapon against
overwhelm: and that is your diary, or calendar, or whatever you use to schedule your
time and remind you to do things. And if you don't use anything
I recommend that you start. Now put all the tasks
that you are going to undertake into your diary. They don't all have to be done today.
Put them in where it's appropriate. Put them in as far ahead as its appropriate.
And, once you've done that, you can relax
because you know that the tasks are gonna get done.
You see, the thing about scheduling, is: we tend to think that it constrains us. We tend to
think that once we've said we'll do a certain thing
at a certain time, we're boxed in and we don't have any freedom. In fact,
the opposite is true. Once we've said we're going to do a certain thing at a certain time,
we can stop worrying about it and get on with something else.
So get everything into your diary, or your
calendar, and then get on with the tasks that you've decided to undertake
today. For more tips on how to overcome overwhelm,
go to my web site www.mygreenandtidylife.co.uk
and download my free masterclass. And do drop me a line
and let me know how you get on putting those ideas into practice. Bye for now.