How to stay organized when you feel overwhelmed

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you get stuck of the same task everyday and it doesn’t get done?

When you have an endless list of things to do, you can easily feel the pressure and the stress.

So how do you keep yourself organized? Do you have a system in place that’s easy to follow so others can try? Do you have daily habits that you practice? What tools do you use and be on top of things?

Today, we are privileged to have Destiny Morse of Mental Wealth Home. She shares to us her productivity tips in order to fight off the feeling of being overwhelmed. Let’s see and hope you’ll learn from her tips.

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Everyone has those days when you get in a rut and can’t get things done. No matter how hard you work it just seems like nothing is being accomplished. In this post I will show you how to manage your productivity and get work done.

As someone with cyclothymia I have days where I bounce from task to task and don’t finish anything. I also have the days when I don’t even want to move let alone get out of my bed. If you are interested, you can learn more about cyclothymia here. So let’s start off.

USE A PLANNER

In order to get things done, no matter what kind of day I’m having, I use a planner. I prefer something that has the days divided up into segments of 30 minutes or an hour. Hereis a daily printable that will get you started organizing your day.

BE CREATIVE

Use any type of writing material you want. I don’t color code my planner but if you choose to that’s fine. I use jell pens to write on it because they are colorful, and they make me happy. Make your planner your own by decorating it. Be creative and still be on top of your tasks.

SET COMMON WORK TIMES

When I am planning my week, I always start with things that are going to be about the same weekly.

For example, I work 9-5 with a one-hour lunch break at noon. I always start by writing “work” at 9am and draw a line down to the noon slot. This is so I can visually see the amount of time I am doing in a particular task.

If you want to, you can also draw a box around the chunk of time you are using.

RELATED: 10 TIPS ON FINDING TIME TO EXERCISE AS A BUSY MOM

WORK ON YOUR SLEEP SCHEDULE

I have realized that writing down when I go to sleep and when I plan to wake up also keeps my sleep schedule on track.

Another thing that is also useful when you get overwhelmed is when and what you eat. Any little thing you want to keep track of should go into your planner.

PLAN AHEAD

After I plan that out, I begin writing in my obligations for that week. If I have a meeting, I write it down and fill in how long it will take.

If I am working on my blog, I would plan out when would be best for me to work on it and fill in space for how long I will be working.

UTILIZE THE NOTES SECTION

The last thing I do is I use the notes section of my planner and write out my to-do list for the week. I then look at my planner and fill in any blank spots with the things I need to do.

If there are any blank spots left, I also write down what I did during that time in order to keep track of how I am spending my days.

Looking for more ideas? Here’s a related post on Time-management tips for moms.

Thank you for reading and let me know how this system works out for you. I am super grateful that I have started using this when feeling overwhelmed. It keeps me accountable throughout the week. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear them. -Destiny

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Now it’s time for my Add-on Tips!

I’m a fan of a planner too and lately, there are new tools that I’ve been using and it works effectively for me. Here they are:

USE ORGANIZING TOOLS/ APPS

Aside from an Outlook Calendar that I usually use at work, I also started using Trello.

Trello is an App wherein you can organize your Boards and create certain tasks and comments. The good thing about this is that you can batch your work and once they’re done, you can transfer them to a different board.

Another App that I use is Asana. Although I don’t use it often, I like the fact that it gives me reminders on what tasks are due soon. I can also visualize it as a Calendar view.

INTEGRATE FAMILY CALENDAR

As a small family, we started using our phone Calendar at home. This gives access to both my husband and I on any appointments that arise. We also get notifications when someone enters at ask and it keeps us both in the loop.

PRIORITIZE TASKS AND UPDATE

As much as possible, learn how to prioritize. Do things in an order of priority and finish them without jumping to another task so that they aren’t hanging over your head.

DO A SELF-CARE ROUTINE

One last thing to add when you feel overwhelmed is to do one Self-Care routine a day. If you are out of ideas, visit our post on 50 Self-Care Ideas for First-time Moms here.

Lastly, a Self-Care activity needs to go hand in hand with Positive Self-Affirmations. An example of this can be ” I am focused”, “I get things done” or “I can do it”.

These are just a few and if you’re interested to grab more, here are our Positive Self-Affirmations that you can follow and repeat daily.

1. 20 Positive Quotes and Self-Affirmations you need as a mother
2. 10 Positive Self-Affirmations for all Moms

This post was written by Destiny Morse from Mental Wealth Home. She has a degree in psychology and back in 2018, she was diagnosed with cyclothymia and PTSD. She now runs a psychology blog aimed at helping people cope with and understand mental illness.  Find her on Social Media and connect!:

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