You start your day by creating a to-do list. But before long, that to-do list looks a mile long. A quiet panic plays in the back of your mind, but you choose to ignore it and start on the urgent task first.
Feeling tense, you lift your eyes from your work for a moment, hoping for a distraction that might ease your stress — only to find the flashing notification of yet another new email.
Something inside you gives up. I’ll never catch up, you think.
If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re far from alone. In fact, the American Psychological Association found that 77% of workers experience workplace stress and a concerning 57% show signs of burnout.
It’s safe to say that feeling overwhelmed at work isn’t just you. It’s all of us.
While workplace overwhelm isn’t a problem one article can solve, I believe every little bit helps…and I’m here to help you!
I believe the tools I share below will help you banish overwhelm and build deep resiliency. They certainly have for me, and I think they will for you too.
Key Takeaways:
- A Mental Health America report states that that 80% of workers say that work stress affects their personal relationships with family, friends and coworkers.
- Feeling overwhelmed at work often means it’s time to remove a stressor (delegate/delay/delete) or add new stress management skills.
- Some workplace stress management skills include exercise, deep breathing, effective prioritizing and reaching out for support.
Table of Contents
- Recognize Signs You’re Feeling Overwhelmed Early (If Possible)
- Learn to Ground Yourself
- Physically Remove Yourself From the Situation
- Get Out of Your Head
- Challenge Anxious Thoughts
- Remember That Not Everything Is an Emergency
- Problem Solve
- Get Comfortable Saying “No”
- Create Support Systems
- Create White Space
- Move Your Body
- Start With 15 Minutes
- Try Asking Woebot
1. Recognize Signs You’re Feeling Overwhelmed Early (If Possible)
In my experience, the earlier you catch signs of overwhelm, the better. This prevents the problem from gathering energy to expand and becoming very difficult to address.
Here are a few signs of overwhelm:
- Feeling lonely or withdrawn from colleagues
- Being easily distracted or unable to focus
- Being unable to hold conversations or retain information
- Experiencing changes in sleep habits
- Finding it challenging to start or finish tasks
- Procrastinating or missing deadlines
- Completing work to a lesser quality
- Being irritable or frustrated in communications
- Becoming less or nonresponsive to communications
If you notice any of these signs of overwhelm in yourself or those you lead, it’s time to reduce stress where possible — take a break, delegate a project or reassess workflows. I often find that taking a walk and talking to myself out loud works wonders.
If removing a stressor is not possible, consider growing your skill set and learning ways to increase your resilience (like the strategies I share below).
2. Learn to Ground Yourself
Deep breath in. Deep breath out.
Grounding is a stress-management technique that eliminates internal stress by refocusing your energy and concentration on a particular activity.
The idea is to get out of your head and reset your focus to the present.
Some common techniques to ground yourself include:
- Sight: Find five things in your current surroundings you hadn’t noticed before, or change your surroundings to see something new.
- Smell: Head to the break room for the smell of fresh coffee, or keep a bottle of nice-smelling cologne or essential oil with you to soothe your nerves.
- Touch: Bring a fidget toy to work, feel the ridges on a water bottle cap, go outside to feel the cool air or push your fingers to your temples.
- Sound: Tap your fingers on the desk, listen to your hands typing on the keyboard or find someplace quiet.
- Taste: Keep a sour spray in your pocket or purse — or a crunchy snack.
- Breathe: Take deep breaths in and out, box breaths or two sharp inhales followed by one exhale.
My favorite technique is deep breathing. Numerous scientific studies have been conducted and positively affirm the power of controlled breathing.
It takes practice, so if you’re new to it, start with just 30 seconds. And if you need some help, the Calm app has some excellent guided breathing sessions you can use.
3. Physically Remove Yourself From the Situation
I know it’s not always possible to physically get away from a stressful situation — like an important meeting, for example — but I definitely recommend it if you can.
If you work from home or control your own schedule, take a break, get out of the office, take a shower, go outside or anywhere else that is physically different.
Often, changing your mind is as simple as changing your environment.
It doesn’t have to take much time, either. If all you have is five minutes to go outside, then go outside and leave work in the office for those five minutes.
You’d be surprised how much even a small change in scenery helps.
4. Get Out of Your Head
When you’re overwhelmed, your mind often has a million thoughts vying for your attention (or at least it feels like that). Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper can quickly help reduce stress.
The next time you feel stressed out, try this simple exercise called a mind map.
Grab a piece of paper and a pencil. I find it more satisfying to physically write things out rather than try to do this digitally. The tactile nature of writing acts as a grounding technique, meaning you get a 2-for-1 benefit.
In the center of your page, draw a circle and ask yourself, “In one or two words, what’s on my mind?” Write it down.
Next, draw a connected circle and write a new thought related to your first circle. So, if your first circle is “overwhelmed,” your connecting circle could be “client meetings.”
Draw as many connections as you need to declutter your mind. Feel free to draw branches off any circle if a thought relates to it.
In the end, you should be able to clearly see where your greatest stressors lie and begin prioritizing or delegating tasks accordingly.
It can also help to do a five-minute meditation or walk after creating a mind map and repeat the exercise by reading it out loud to uncover new thoughts and possible solutions with a calmer mind.
5. Challenge Anxious Thoughts
Thoughts like, “I’ll never get this done,” or “I’m so behind that I’ll never catch up,” serve a purpose — they are trying to motivate you to get things done.
However, they are often exaggerations that actually heighten your stress and zap the energy needed to complete the next task.
The next time you recognize anxious thoughts in yourself — or hear an employee voicing them — try to challenge them by:
- Thanking them for signaling that there’s a problem. Remember, these thoughts exist for a reason, and simply wishing them away is often counterproductive.
- Determining what underlying problem is causing them. Is it a difficult project? Or a skill gap? Something else?
- Deciding if these thoughts are realistic. Do you genuinely not have enough time? Will a mistake actually end your career? What are the realistic stakes in this scenario?
- Learning what you can do to move forward. Now that you know you’re anxious because of X problem, and Y things are true while Z things are not, can you think of a solution?
While creating a mind map isn’t always about finding solutions, it can help you organize your thoughts so you can communicate effectively with others about your current challenges and revealed insights.
And if you can’t find a solution, it’s OK to ask for help. A little dose of humility goes a long way.
6. Remember That Not Everything Is an Emergency
While it’s important to be consistent and learn effective time management strategies, not everything is an emergency. Most of the time, it’s okay to extend a project deadline by a day or send that email tomorrow.
The key is learning to accurately discern which tasks are priorities and which are not.
To quickly find priorities for the day, I created a simple spreadsheet where I rank tasks by their impact, urgency and effort with the following ranking system:
- Impact: Rank impact from 1-3, with 3 being the highest.
- Urgency: Rank deadlines from 1 – 6, where 6 = overdue, 5 = Monday, 4 = Tuesday, 3 = Wednesday, 2 = Thursday and 1 = Friday. If you have tasks you need to plan for more than a week ahead, you can assign any number from 1 – 6, depending on urgency.
- Effort: Estimate how many hours the task will take to complete.
Then, I multiply these rankings to determine a priority score. The higher the score, the bigger the priority.
You can do the same thing in your own spreadsheet or snag mine below.
I recommend you do this exercise weekly, either on the Friday before to plan for the coming week or first thing Monday morning.
And trust me, the more you do this exercise, the more you’ll understand how to prioritize work and spend less time putting out fires.
7. Problem Solve
After using any of the strategies above to remove yourself from the situation, quiet your mind as much as possible and begin to see the situation realistically, you’re ready to begin creative problem-solving.
Can the project deadline be extended? Do you have anyone you could delegate tasks to? Do you need to create a new system or learn a new skill set?
(If so, it may be time to create an individual development plan)
Some challenges may be difficult, but remember that problem-solving is a chance for you to build confidence in your own abilities (and help employees build theirs).
For especially difficult challenges, try brainstorming with a simple sentence stem challenge. Grab a piece of paper and write, “If there’s a realistic solution to this challenge, it might be …”
Set a timer for sixty seconds and quickly write down five to ten endings to the sentence stem. Do not think. Write down whatever comes to mind, no matter how “wrong” it sounds.
You may be surprised what kind of creative solutions you can think of.
Once you’ve finished this exercise, I recommend you do something I call the D3 Audit.
The D3 Audit stands for Delete, Delay and Delegate.
- Delete. It’s common for you to have “pet” meetings or tasks that became irrelevant or unnecessary a long time ago. Write out all your meetings and recurring tasks and ask yourself, “Can I delete this from my workload”? Odds are, you can and you should.
- Delay. If you can’t delete the meetings or tasks, you might be able to simply delay them. Maybe there are weekly 1:1s that can be shifted to once a month. Maybe you’re once a month catch up call can be moved to once a quarter.
- Delegate. Who else can take over the reigns so you can reclaim time back in your day? And if it’s not a person, can it be delegated to AI? AI is a force multiplier, and you’d be surprised at how efficient and good it can be. Find someone (or something) to empower and let them do the work for you.
8. Get Comfortable Saying No
It’s easy to want to say yes to everything at work. In fact, many employees with a passive communication style likely do so to avoid conflict and keep others happy.
However, saying yes all the time isn’t always helpful. Overcrowding your schedule won’t do you or your team any good.
So long as you have a legitimate reason, saying no in the workplace is okay. A few instances where saying no is okay could be:
- When something is unnecessary
- When a project goes over scope and needs more time or assets allocated
- When there are conflicting priorities
- When your physical health is in danger
- When there aren’t sufficient resources to complete the task
- When you don’t have the skills or expertise
Ultimately, saying no is about setting and maintaining work boundaries that are appropriate for you and your colleagues.
9. Create Support Systems
You are not an island. At the end of the day, you need help.
Finding others at work whom you can trust and talk to without fear of judgment or criticism is invaluable.
Remember, it’s okay to let your team know you’re facing a challenge. Saying you need help doesn’t make you look bad or incapable.
In fact, it makes you look human and builds rapport with your team as you problem-solve together.
It’s also a great way to lead by example and show that collaboration is ultimately how a workplace succeeds.
Try using one-one-one questions to see how others face challenges — and see what you can learn and apply from their approaches. Ask questions like:
- Can you tell me about a time you overcame a challenging situation?
- What steps did you take to overcome that challenge?
- If you were a leader facing X challenge, what would you do?
Even the smartest person in the room knows he can learn something from anybody!
10. Create White Space
In design, white space refers to the empty space around design elements that prevents crowding.
Overwhelm is often the result of an overcrowded mind, which might sound something like:
I need to complete that client proposal by tomorrow, so I’ll have to set aside time today to strategize. If I use the time today, I’ll have to reschedule XYZ, but first, I need to send that email!
Constantly juggling things in your mind is not effective. For one, it’s easy to become disorganized and forgetful, but more importantly — it’s incredibly tiring.
Sometimes, you just need an empty mind — white space.
When I say empty mind, I’m referring to an unfocused mind — the kind of quiet, meandering thoughts you might think while:
- In the shower
- On a walk outside by yourself
- Out for a swim
- Playing with your pet
- Watching ducks swim in a pond
- Digging in the garden
Different people will experience white space with different activities. The important factor is that it calms your mind (and may even feel absent-minded).
Find your white space activities and schedule them into your day after work or as breaks. I recommend creating short, 5-minute “startup” and “shutdown” routines at the bookends of the day.
They signal to you that the day is beginning or ending (I personally like to read during my routines).
I’m confident they will work, and your mind will thank you for the empty space.
In fact, you’ll probably have some of your most creative, insightful thoughts during times of white space.
(It’s no wonder so many great ideas happen in the shower!)
11. Move Your Body
Studies show a clear connection between exercise and reduced stress.
Part of this is because exercise releases endorphins, which help regulate mood and boost happiness. The increased oxygen flow also improves cognitive function.
That’s why something as simple as a ten-minute walk outside often makes a big difference if you’re feeling overwhelmed. In fact, the CDC’s current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans only require a little over ten minutes of vigorous daily exercise (75 minutes per week).
This makes exercise a relatively small time commitment with a huge upside, so don’t skip it!
12. Start With 15 Minutes
If you’re feeling overwhelmed because of a certain task that will take you several hours, try setting a timer for just fifteen minutes.
(I personally have a TimeCube that I use for this exact scenario)
Once the timer goes off, you can take a guilt-free break, switch to a different project or keep going on the original task.
I often find that starting is the hardest part, and once I get going, I magically find the energy to keep going.
In fact, the fifteen-minute rule can build so much momentum that you may even find stopping and restarting more difficult than it’s worth.
Think about Newton’s Law: An object in motion tends to stay in motion!
13. Try Asking Woebot
Woebot is a new mental health tool that uses AI to power chats based on psychological principles.
In other words, it’s not exactly like having a therapist in your pocket, but it’s as close as you can get.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and need a place to talk without judgment, Woebot can help you:
- Feel grounded
- Work through breathing exercises
- Problem solve
- Address procrastination
- Address negative thoughts
- Manage stress and anxiety
Since managing workplace stress overlaps with managing stress in general, Woebot can be a powerful tool in your back pocket when you need it most.
Finally, it’s important to remember that you won’t always feel overwhelmed at work. Seasons come and go, and with a bit of creativity, persistence and effective collaboration, I know there’s no challenge you can’t learn and grow from and overcome.
Here’s to reducing stress and banishing overwhelm together,
Thomas
P.S. What are the biggest challenges you are facing right now that are causing stress? Let me know in the comments below!
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