Feeling frazzled, stressed & burnt out?

Is it just me or is everyone feeling overloaded? Every day I feel like my pile of unfinished tasks keeps growing. This is making me feel very incompetent. I don’t like this feeling at all!

Many people are drowning in unfinished tasks and a tsunami of emails. And the more they see this and the more new tasks and calls come in, the more stressed and agitated they become.

Here are some simple things you can do to stay in control, instead of getting fixated in the internal voice telling you that you are out of control, stressed, tired, overloaded… victim talk, which will not help you.

The best thing you can do is walk away from it and find a quiet, nice environment and start thinking about what you really want in your life. Think about your goals, the things you really want to do, the things you enjoy most. Think about your family and friends and how much you want to see them, share with them. And most important of all think about what you need for yourself – to feel good and healthy.

It’s possible you are so swamped you have lost sight of the goals and the pleasures – and you are simply focused on the tough process you are in.

Whatever the issue, there are five things you should do:

1. Consider your health – are you eating well and getting some minimal exercise – because this will actually HELP you through a stressful time, yet many of us think we are too tired to worry about our bodies.

2. Reassess your priorities so you are focused on what you need to do, given limited time. And keep a goal or vision of what you want in your life career wise and personally – and make sure you are heading towards, not away from this goal. This will help you decide what emails, what task, what actions you do need to deal with. There are some things that you just cannot do, should be delegated or even dumped, or re-negotiated with your team/manager/board.

3. Hear your stress messages and allow them to pass out of your mind and replace them with wellbeing messages:

• I will be strong
• I can keep going
• I will manage
• I will use my time effectively
• I am okay
• I can get through this

4. Enjoy what you do get done, tick it off a list, be pleased that is one more thing out of the way, instead of berating yourself for not getting enough done. Whether it be one small thing, a task left over, a call you should make, just do it and be proud it is off your list. When you break a backlog it will give you a big energy lift IF you appreciate what you have done, rather than focusing on what you have not done.

5. Make quick and effective decisions, because dragging out decisions and actions leads to more anxiety, and causes you to become less effective.

We only live once. We should enjoy our work. We should also balance our priorities to make sure we have the time to enjoy our personal life.

Eve Ash has produced many DVDs about health and wellbeing and regaining control of life, and well as a best selling book Rewrite Your Life!