Here are 3 more tips for Overcoming Overwhelm.
As we said before – this is about Minimum Effective Dosage – NOT major overhauls (although we are going to give you one bigger one, to get you thinking)
Like that domino that sets all the others off – these are simple things, that women we coach tell us are game changers.
3 Overcoming Overwhelm ‘Dominos!’
1.Get rid of Facebook ‘Noise’
We LOVE social media. But if you’re anything like us, you’ll know just how much time it can steal from your day. Also too much time spent on Social Media has been proven to have a negative effect on your mood – adding to the overwhelm.
If you’ve taken our 5-Day Declutter challenge we have LOTS of strategies for making Social work for you – but here’s a great one we didn’t mention:
Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator
you can download it here for Chrome
or here for Safari
Quite simply – your newsfeed… is gone!
You can still go search things out – find your friends and do all the things you normally do – you can enjoy all the benefits of staying in touch with friends, using groups and keeping in touch – but WITHOUT being drawn in to mindless scrolling.
You still see notifications and messages but you DON’T have to waste your precious time on the things you aren’t really interested in.
It gave us hours of extra time in our week and people say tell us that it actually lifts their mood and help them stay productive – it definitely works for us too!
2. Set up/Organise your Google Calendar
If you already use an online calendar – fantastic, but we bet you could get even more out of it.
If you have an Echo (Alexa) or Google Home – you can just tell it what you want on your calendar too (which the nerd in me loves).
As well as appointments and birthdays – Schedule things like Online Food Shopping, and those things that you mean but sometimes forget to do in time.
(Ordering contact lenses, book classes at the gym, MOT, hair cuts and so on)
Rather than just doing the next appointment – use the repeat function to schedule them throughout the year, so you are never playing catch up.
Keeping stuff ‘in your head’ literally adds to that overwhelmed feeling.
You can take this further by plotting some goals in: maybe a distance you want to run, chapters of the book you want to write, or weekly self-care appointments with yourself. (At least)
Also – you can invite other people to share your calendar (or the parts you want to share), maybe family members, friends, colleagues and so on. Taking an hour to do this makes you feel immediately, and deliciously, in control.
3. Let Ocado (Or Sainsbury’s / your emporium of choice) Take the Strain.
Let's Get Started
OK this is the much bigger one, but as we had been telling you about Jo – we thought we’d better tell you what we helped her to do.
Online food shopping is such a brilliant idea – but we don’t all do it.
People tell us that one of the reasons, is that it’s time consuming to set up and shopping tends to happen when they’ve run out of food!
Yet another shovelful of overwhelm to add to your load!
So they need it today.
Here is some of what Jo did to overcome her FOOD overwhelm.
If you do this you never need to make a shopping list again or need an emergency takeaway. (Or at least not for a couple of years) but in its simplest form – you will claim back an average of 15 hours a month – if you set it up this up properly. And that’s forever…
That’s over half a day back to write that book… or go for that spa treatment #justsaying
Here’s how to set it up: (It takes a a bit of time, but saves you SO much more)
a.. Brainstorm with your family (or if you live alone – simply list) all the meals that you enjoy. Include breakfast lunch, supper, snacks, drinks,
Get out the cookbooks you normally use, the online sites, and jot down things from memory.
Simple Recipes with Fresh Ingredients beat complicated stuff hands-down.
The average person has 17 main meals in their regular repertoire – this is going to give you 28 – but adjust to suit you.
(If you need ideas you can get a FREE month of our £10 a month online Food and Exercise plan Club Gorgeous and simply cancel without paying a penny, once you are bursting with ideas)
b. Make your list of ingredients for each meal, each day for 4 weeks and set them up as 4 Shopping Lists on your supermarket’s online ordering.
c. Schedule your 4 weeks deliveries on repeat!
(or set a reminder to do it if your supermarket does things differently)
There’s nothing to stop you tweaking, changing, adding and taking away as you go on, but you will have the structure in place, which is the BIG job.
d. Put your meal names in your Google Calendar, on the right day along with recipe book page / online recipe or even just write it as a note in the calendar entry. Don’t forget to set it to repeat.
There is nothing to say you can’t swap things around and change your mind.
Remember you are only doing this once, and you will ALWAYS have the right food in the cupboards and never have to waste time working out what to have.
It could be that none of the above are your particular issues – but the principle stays the same – streamline – simplify – preplan… overcome overwhelm!
No-one wants to spend their time on or have their energy drained by life’s mundane stuff.
And mundane stuff is often what leads to that feeling of overwhelm.
We want you out there in the World; living your dreams, full of energy, waking up each day feeling excited.
You deserve that.
Your mission today is to find an Overwhelm Domino for you… and knock it down!
We’d love to hear how you get on.
Check out our fabulous Freebie page, we have things to make you feel better: Mind, Mood, Body & Food
Click the picture below