When You Feel Overwhelmed
For anyone carrying more than they can hold right now and not sure where to start.
To stop feeling overwhelmed, get everything out of your head and onto paper, pick the one or two things that truly matter today, break the first one into a step you can do in the next 15 minutes and let the rest wait on the list. Overwhelm usually comes from holding too much at once, not from any single task. Writing it down and narrowing your focus makes it manageable again.
A few years ago, the economy shifted and hit our industry hard. After years of growth, revenue fell, and we had to let people go. People who had done nothing wrong.
Some of those conversations were incredibly emotional. I would leave a meeting, find an empty stairwell or bathroom and just sit there, trying to collect myself before the next conversation.
That weight doesn’t stay in the office. You take it home with you. I questioned if I could keep going, not because I didn’t care, but because I cared so much. It would have been easier to disconnect and treat it all as transactions. But I wasn’t leading a spreadsheet. I was leading people.
Part of overwhelm is how scattered our attention has become. Gloria Mark, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, found that people’s attention on a screen now shifts on average about every 47 seconds. Every switch adds to the feeling that everything is happening at once.
Worry creates the emotional experience of a problem without creating a solution.
Six steps when everything feels like too much
Pause and breathe
Before you do anything, take a few slow breaths. Overwhelm makes everything feel urgent. A one-minute pause reminds you that almost nothing needs to happen in the next sixty seconds.
Write everything down
List every task, worry and loose end. Your mind treats unfinished things as alarms. Paper turns them into a list.
Pick one or two that matter today
Most of the list can wait a day or a week. Circle the one or two things that genuinely matter today. The rest stays on the list, not in your head.
Make the first step tiny
Break your top item into a step you can do in the next 15 minutes. Starting is what breaks the freeze.
Cut, delay or hand off
For the rest of the list, ask: can I drop this, delay it or ask someone else to help? Not everything that lands on you has to stay with you.
Take care of the basics
Overwhelm gets worse when you are running on empty. Protecting sleep and a short walk is not a luxury. It keeps you able to handle the rest. If the feeling does not lift for weeks, talk to someone you trust or a professional.
You do not have to solve everything today.
Just the next thing.
Why do I feel overwhelmed all the time?
Usually because too many things are open at once, nothing is written down and every task feels equally urgent. Constant switching makes it worse. The fix is fewer open loops, clearer priorities and protected time for one thing at a time.
Related reading: Too Many Goals?, How to Ask for Help When You Are Used to Doing It All and The Weekly Reset.
Common questions
How do I stop feeling overwhelmed?
Pause, write everything down, choose the one or two things that matter today, break the first into a 15-minute step and cut, delay or hand off the rest.
Why do I get overwhelmed so easily?
Overwhelm usually comes from holding too many unfinished things in your head at once, often combined with constant task-switching and too little rest.
What should I do first when I am overwhelmed?
Stop for a minute and write everything down. Seeing it on paper makes it easier to pick one starting point.
When should I get help for feeling overwhelmed?
If the feeling lasts for weeks, affects your sleep or health or makes daily life hard to manage, talk to someone you trust or a mental health professional.
Write it all down, pick one or two things that matter today, start with a 15-minute step and let the rest wait on the list.
You Are Capable
of More.
Ten principles for becoming the person you know you are capable of being, built from real stories of people who doubted themselves and did it anyway. Winner of the How-To category at the 2026 Paris Book Festival.
When I’ve got something worth sending.
Just a story or an idea I picked up that I think will help you.
Sometimes that’s twice in a month. Sometimes it’s not for a while.