My stepdaughter recently learned a valuable lesson in time management. While preparing for her first set of high school exams, she found herself overloaded with projects, deadlines and revision. It wasn’t uncommon for her to spend 4 hours or more a night on homework and study.
It didn’t take too long for her to become overwhelmed.
But her lesson wasn’t in certain time management tips or techniques. In many ways, she already knows how to parcel out her time to get things done.
The lesson was in the effects of allowing herself to become completely stressed out by external factors and what that anxiety did to her internal voice.
She was cranky, irritable and short-tempered. Her sleep was disrupted and her eating habits were awful. And she was being incredibly hard on herself, berating herself for not being able to get it all done, even though she knew that all her friends were struggling too.
Does any of this sound familiar to the way YOU create your day when you’re overwhelmed?
Action – If you’re waiting for me to give you fool-proof tactics for dealing with overwhelm, don’t bother! Because it’s only when you accept that you CAN control your responses to the situations causing the stress that you will begin to move out from under it.