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Since my first foray into researching productivity, I’ve been honing a process to get unstuck when I feel overwhelmed.

Even though some overwhelm is technically “good” stress that will provide me with a great opportunity—it could be an “oh wow, I’m really looking forward to starting this new, complex, long-term, high stakes adventure, but I don’t know where to begin!”—overwhelm still feels distracting and uncomfortable.

I’ve been working on an approach for shifting out of overwhelm, which I’m currently calling Work Backwards from Overwhelm to Insight and Action. The Work Backwards approach is a method I use for shifting my perspective from feeling stuck in overwhelm to identifying a new goal with actionable and achievable to-do tasks. It has four key steps:

1. • Identify what’s overwhelming you.
   • Describe your experience.
   • Imagine an opposite experience with the same activity.
   • Determine action steps and get started.

I’ve been working on an approach for shifting out of overwhelm, which I’m currently calling Work Backwards from Overwhelm to Insight and Action. The Work Backwards approach is a method I use for shifting my perspective from feeling stuck in overwhelm to identifying a new goal with actionable and achievable to-do tasks. It has four key steps:

Before I work through the four steps, I want to state early on that this approach isn’t a foolproof solution to becoming more productive or motivated, especially if you’re burnt out. I acknowledge that systemic oppression—i.e., late stage capitalism’s intentional wealth disparity, white supremacist obsessions with perfectionism and workaholism, and disproportionate accessibility to resources of time, energy, money, and focus—are very real obstacles to taking immediate action, even once you’ve shifted your mindset.

You can read my criticism of dismissing negative emotions in effort to feel purposeful in “How to Cope with Negative Emotions without Spiritual Bypassing.” Also, while I’ll talk about overwhelm today, if you want to read more about the experience of burnout, check out Anne Helen Peterson’s “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation” and please also read Tiana Clark’s response, “This is What Black Burnout Feels Like.”

Step 1: Identify what’s overwhelming you.

Take a few minutes to identify what activity or experience you’re having difficulty with. You know you feel overwhelmed, but what are you overwhelmed about? You can write this down in a journal, talk it out with a friend, or just reflect on it in your mind.

Here are some examples to spark your reflection:

• I don’t have enough time to complete this assignment by the deadline;
• I overbooked myself again and now I have to rush from meeting to meeting;
• I feel totally lost with my dissertation;
• I can’t seem to stick with my new habit.

Step 2: Describe your experience.

This second step is to describe how you feel about your experience with overwhelm. What other words would you use to describe how it feels?

Here are some sample words I might use to describe what overwhelm feels like for me: under pressure, overcaffeinated but still can’t focus, angry, pulled in multiple directions, confused, too many things to do at once, short tempered, busy, and exhausted.

Note that not all of these words are necessarily “bad.” Perhaps you feel like you’re pulled in multiple directions because you’re submitting a book proposal for a new project you are passionate about, but you’re also onboarding a new client and finishing a high-paying contracting gig—all in one day. Even if your to-do list is full of awesome activities, you can still feel overwhelmed, and that feeling can still be yucky.

Step 3: Imagine an opposite experience with the same activity.

Now that you’ve honed in on which activity, responsibility, or goal is overwhelming you and you’ve identified what that overwhelm feels like, you’re ready to brainstorm alternatives. Remember: the goal is not to shift from overwhelm to negative self talk or to shame yourself for not being “good enough” at productivity (I’m a professional Productivity Coach and I still get overwhelmed sometimes!). Instead, the goal is to imagine how you would like to feel about the same project.

Here’s a real example from my own experience with Steps 1, 2, and 3:

Step 1: I feel overwhelmed because I have a deadline on Thursday but I still have to complete my regular weekly responsibilities.

Step 2: I feel worried that I will work myself into the ground trying to complete this project while also managing to check off my to-do list, meal prep, and care for myself. I feel pressure to do a good job at everything, and I feel sad when I think about giving up my relaxation and rest time to do work.

Step 3: Instead of feeling anxious and preemptively disappointed, I would like to feel like I have agency over my time. I want to give myself permission to do a “good enough” job. I want to be self-loving and prioritize my personal rest and self-care activities like yoga class, eating dinner with my Sweetie, and reading in bed and writing morning pages in the morning.

Just writing my Step 3 reflection felt great, and I haven’t even written down action steps yet. Now you try it out—imagine what it would feel like and look like to do the same activity in a way that feels better to you.

Step 4: Determine action steps and get started.

By now, you should have a rough idea of what you’re overwhelmed with, how it feels, and how you’d like to feel instead. Now it’s time to come up with some actionable and achievable steps you can take to chip away at your responsibilities via your new goal mindset.

For me, in order to have agency over my time, I will establish clear boundaries and will say no to any new opportunities.

In order to give myself permission to do a “good enough” job, I will predetermine what is required to complete the project, will write a specific to-do list that lines up with “good enough,” and I will only do those tasks.

In order to be self-loving, I will set up accountability with my Sweetie and will sign up for yoga classes ahead of time, to ensure I will follow through. I will follow a rule that I cannot open my laptop until I complete morning pages, and I will follow a rule that I cannot start work until 9am.

What about you? What action steps will help you to achieve the feelings you outlined in Step 3?

Congrats on completing the Work Backwards process!

As a refresher, the key steps for working backwards from overwhelm to gaining insight about what you desire and developing action steps to get there are:

1. Identify what’s overwhelming you.
2. Describe your experience.
3. Imagine an opposite experience with the same activity.
4. Determine action steps and get started.

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