Your stress doesn't come from having lots of things to do

Posted on May 23, 2019 by Andrea Arcusa, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Are you feeling stressed? Do you think you have too much to do? Do you believe all these tasks are the cause of your stress?

I’ve also been there and I’ve found a simple and obvious method that helped me when started using it, and I want to share with you.

But first… let me tell you something, as David Allen said:
“Must of the stress you feel doesn’t come from having too much to do, but form not finishing what you started” – David Allen

When you feel your brain is about to explode, stop for a moment and think: How many open tasks or topics do I have in my mind right now?

Let me guess…
- A few read emails waiting for your answer
- One hundred tabs open in your browser
- Thousands of documents on your desk
- WhatsApp messages popping up in your phone
- Your stomach growling

Yes… you might have lots of them, but the root of the problem is not all the tasks you have, it’s all the OPEN and UNFINISHED tasks.

Here is my advice, it might seem obvious but if you stop saying “Yes… I knew this already” or “I tried it and, look, this is not for me…”, and you follow these 5 simple steps, you can completely change your experience when handling multiple tasks and increase your productivity:

1. List all the tasks you have in your mind
2. Remove all the distractions (E.g. email, social media or WhatsApp notifications)
3. Focus on just ONE and don’t stop until you finish
4. Once you’ve finished the first one: cross it out
5. And then, just then go back to point 3. You are ready to go for the next one!

If you put your focus on lots of tasks at the same time you might end up without being able to finish any of them. This cause stress and frustration. Whereas, if you focus on one task and you finish it you’ll feel empowered, rewarded and you’ll have more motivation to keep doing.

From my personal experience and working with my clients, I’ve found that something as simple as making to-do list reduce the stress levels and increase productivity.

If you are feeling overwhelmed because you have lots of things to do, make a list. It’ll help you to free up mental energy, and it’ll give you a sense of control. When you cross the items off the list, you’ll feel you’ve accomplished something and you’ll boost your confidence.

Give it a try and share your experience with me, I’ll be happy to know more about it!