Overwhelmed? Try these.

If you’re feeling like there’s too much on your plate, not enough time to do it, and not enough downtime to make up for all the effort required, you are not alone.

Two A student clients, who always have their coaching homework ready on time and come to every session prepared and excited, both canceled on me today.

Both apologized profusely in their emails saying they needed to get ahead of more of their commitments and didn’t have enough headspace to concentrate on our work together—the important steps to creating more meaningful, expansive lives for themselves.

“It’s not like me to do this,” they each admitted.

If you’re not feeling like yourself either, these will help:

1. Overhaul your to-do list. This oldie but goodie post is worth a re-read if you’re buried by a mile long list without making much headway. It’s also worthwhile if you like to hack your processes once in a while.

2. Revel in what’s working. Another oldie but goodie for you. If you don’t have a Smile File or haven’t contributed to it lately, this is the perfect time to get acquainted. A pick-me-up that’s better than caffeine and the buzz lasts longer.

3. Schedule a date with yourself in two weeks. Hopefully the first two tips will clarify what you really have to accomplish right now and what to-do’s / worries / decisions can be put off. For those, choose a time at least two weeks away where you agree to come back to these if you need to and in the meantime take them out of your mind and off your plate. Which leads me to…

4. Cancel. For my dearest clients, that can even mean postponing your next coaching session. You are the one to give yourself permission to take time, so do it. Reschedule or cancel engagements and block your time for napping, reading or staring out the window. Your to-dos and your mental health will both be better for it, and those of us canceled on will still love you. Promise.

If you start to feel guilty, consider instead that you’re trying something new. Experimenting. Seeing how different schedules, changing commitments, affect your output and energy levels.

In other words, change is useful and that’s all you’re doing. Changing things up.

Pay attention to how you feel as you do these and adjust accordingly, and no matter what Give Yourself Credit for doing your best. You are.

What is helping you reduce overwhelm? Share your thoughts here or email me.

image by Kristin Reimer/Photomuse

How’s your “new normal”?

If you’re like me, it really depends on the moment.

Sometimes I take my own advice from two weeks ago and brush my teeth, drink water, and text my mom a funny joke to encourage her not to walk around Rite Aid even though she’s bored.

At other times, today for instance, I cried and broke out in hives before noon.

Based on what I’m seeing from others on social media and feeling in my own body, these are stages of grief. Nice that Harvard Business Review agrees. We are collectively grieving change on a level most of us were unprepared for and without an end in sight.

On top of that is having to hold it together for others.

If you let yourself, you can likely feel the burden of other people depending on you for stability, a sense of calm and order, being their shoulder to cry on.

That’s a lot, especially if you don’t have a shoulder for your crying.

As an A student, this time may also bring out your superpowers. You could excel at being thrown into action, managing schedules, comforting loved ones, and working out to one of the many new online classes.

If you’re firing on all cylinders, go you! And if in the quiet moments you also break out in hives, you’re not alone. If you want to talk through either, my calendar is still open for Pep Talks.

More support when you need it:

1) Brave the discomfort. Brené Brown has a new podcast and I already listened to the first episode twice because it’s about this pandemic being a FFT — “F-ing First Time” — for all of us. There’s a relief in naming our collective new territory plus she also offers concrete steps to move through it.

2) Make a to-do list. The first thing that went out the window when changes started? My to-do list. The thing that will save my sanity, and keep me positive and productive? You guessed it. No doubt your to-do list is different in a lot of ways than a month ago, so if you haven’t already (go A students!) make a new one. Decorate it special, choose a new font. The version I offer my mailing list might help.

3) Join me for a Lunch Break on Instagram this Wednesday at 1pm ET. I’m speaking with Stella Yoon of Hudson River Exchange about how we’re navigating this new normal as business owners and what might help you too. Follow her to see when we go live.

4) Choose hope. I listened to a meditation by Oprah and Deepak Chopra on Hope in Uncertain Times, and she quoted Maya Angelou: “Hope and fear can’t occupy the same place. Invite one to stay.” You might need to re-invite hope several times a day, treating it as a form of meditation: choosing hope (for your family, business, health and community), and when your mind wanders choosing hope all over again.

I believe so much in you, and what’s possible when we lean on each other.