https://youtu.be/PIV8WscbE7c In this week's video I tackle a really common challenge - not just for my clients but for most of us navigating this thing called Life: The Tendency to Overthink. Humans have the capacity to think. It is pretty extraordinary when you step back to consider this power. Even beyond what we think about - the fact that we think
Do you ever sit back and realize just how much you get done in a day? You are moving from morning until night and yet for some reason there is an undercurrent of anxiety that you can't seem to shake. It never feels like you are doing enough. And so you pile on more. You say yes to more. You push yourself to work faster and harder. You attempt to
There are a lot of reasons we get stuck in overwhelm. I’ve talked about many of them here, here, and here. Not too long ago I recognized another cause of overwhelm that is operating beneath the surface for many of the people I work with. It is not only the source of overwhelm but of guilt, disorganization, and even shame. This cause is so common that
Most people have no idea just how much you do in a day. Between the demands of your job, taking care of your family, managing the house, and squeezing in a few minutes of social time if you're lucky - it can feel like everyday is a marathon. What's especially frustrating is when you work so hard and do so much and still don't feel caught up at the
In the last week, I've had three clients express anxiety over what September is about to bring:
More time at work
More time running the kids aroundMore time volunteering/social clubs/etc.
Which means:
Less time
keeping the house in orderLess time to take care of yourself and othersLess time actually getting things done
But
I had the good fortune to sit down with Brigid Schulte, a wife, mother, award-winning journalist with The Washington Post and the author of her new book: Overwhelmed: Work, Love, Play, When No One Has The Time. In this heavily researched book, Schulte takes us on a journey around the world as she uncovers the roots of why we feel so harried and
Have you ever experienced nagging thoughts reminding you of a task you haven’t completed? Of course you have. You’re human. These nagging thoughts are called the Zeigarnik Effect. And yes, it's an actual thing. Bluma Zeigarnik, a social scientist in the early 20th century discovered that our minds “let go” of tasks that are completed and “hang on”
As many of you know, I don’t believe in let-me-tell-you-what-to-do-time-management. Why? It doesn’t work. What does work is the perfect-for-you time system just waiting to be fully discovered and put into practice - that's buried inside of you. It's been covered up by the endless stream of conventional time management advice that everyone is
Prioritizing is not easy and prioritizing when overwhelmed is monumentally more challenging. In fact, according to David Rock in his book Your Brain At Work, prioritizing is one of the most energy-consuming tasks our brains can perform. Not only do you have to manage a ton of data all at once in your prefrontal cortex, you have to simultaneously
If you have read this blog for any length of time you know that I deeply believe in the power of self-care. Not only can it transform your productivity it can shift you away from the striving energy of “doing” to the receiving energy of “being”. This is what Kathleen Ellis and I spent much of our time discussing during this month’s Productivity
