In past episodes, Shannon and Janine have discussed how to deal with overwhelm. This week we’re talking about how to prevent feeling overwhelmed in the first place.
Discussion topics include:
- Learning to say no
- Knowing what is important to you so that you know when to say yes
- Janine’s strategies for saying no (she’s getting really good at it)
- Recognizing that by saying no to an opportunity, you’re giving someone who wants to do it a chance
- How “busy” isn’t really a badge of honor
- The fact that it’s totally okay (even beneficial!) to not be busy
- The value of knowing your capacity so you don’t take on more than you can handle
- Recognizing that you can’t “make time” to do something
- Creating systems to automate things that happen regularly so they don’t become overwhelming
- Planning in advance how things could go more smoothly
- Writing everything down to free the brain and alleviate overwhelm
- Allowing yourself some spaciousness (and giving yourself a moment to catch your breath!)
- The paradox of how recognizing you don’t have control makes you feel more in control
- The role of self care in preventing overwhelm
- How it’s okay to tell someone something they don’t want to hear
I have to confess that when I started listening to your podcast series, I skipped ahead to this episode. I wrote down the name of each episode and its number. When I started to begin the decluttering process of the stuff from my mother’s home, I listened to this one and it helped. I do like the advice of writing everything down to free up space in the brain. I do that with my daily To-Do list. It’s one way not to have everything rattling around in my brain. Once it’s on paper, it’s halfway done!