how to organize your life when you are overwhelmed

You will get things done much more quickly, and get much better results.’ 4. If you really need to get something done, focus on it 100 per cent. ‘Multitasking requires you to spread your attention across many tasks, so, by definition, this means that you don’t give any single job your full attention. ‘Women are brought up being told that we’re great at it, but multitasking is not useful at work and definitely not useful when the task is important,’ says Claire Mitchell. Hand over anything that can be delegated, and get things done instead of worrying about them being perfect.’

Pretend that you have one day to get it all sorted and if it’s not worth doing, ditch it. Try to recreate this attitude whenever you need to make some serious headway with your workload. This is because you become ruthless with your to-do list. ‘You only have one day to sort out a mountain of work and it looks impossible but somehow you manage it. ‘Think of how productive you are the day before you go on holiday,’ says Claire Mitchell. Time management tips will motivate you to get the most important things done within a realistic timeframe.

Do this every time you feel overwhelmed.’ 2. You can then ditch some of it, and do the rest in order of importance.

Try a ‘brain download’, where you write everything down, so that you can take a look at what’s clogging up your brain. ‘In reality, there will be things that can wait or just need your attention for a short time, so the key thing is to get visibility on what you’re dealing with.

How to organize your life when you are overwhelmed