It’s not Creative Director Cool to admit it, but I struggle significantly with overwhelm.

Overwhelm is NOT a force of nature. It’s a learned and practiced habit. I know that.

I’ve got the best, anti-overwhelm, most pro-self-care planners and systems and containers out there at my fingertips. I use them, sometimes devotedly, sometimes dipping in and out.

I’ve got a fabulous little support team who goes above and beyond to make sure I stay out of the weeds.

And yet, I keep walking myself back there emotionally — into the weeds of overwhelm — when I think about all there is to do.

Because I hold a big vision, there’s this self-imposed pressure to be able to ‘wrangle’ the vision. But: ack. I am NOT a wrangler. I dislike the word ‘wrangler.’ I don’t actually don’t want any ‘wranglers’ hanging around my business.

What I do like: Compassion. Composition. Harmony. Cascading. Ordering. Sliding into place.

Last night I was talking to someone who knows me well. I asked her (rhetorically) what I can do (again — yes, AGAIN) to not feel so overwhelmed in my business and life.

She asked me, “What DO you need to do? Somewhere deep inside, you DO know what that is.”

“What do I need to stay out of overwhelm?” I asked myself, like a well-polished school girl rehearsing lines for a report I’d give in front of the class.

And then, this (what follows below) came out of me — clear, centered, certain, sure. I first talked this aloud, and then immediately grabbed my iPhone, opened the Notes app, and dictated it in, knowing I’d write about this topic today.

If you struggle with overwhelm, I think it might help you, too.

How to Not Feel Overwhelmed In Your Business & Life (As Told To Me, By Myself)

1) Take care of yourself first everyday. Follow the impulse for self-care. If you feel like taking a walk by yourself outdoors, take it. If you feel like soaking in a hot bath with Himalyan pink sea salts, do it. If you feel like reading a novel on the couch for 30 minutes, have at it. When recovering from perpetual overwhelm, extreme self-care is the protocol.

2) If you could only work two hours a day, what would be the essentials you’d need to get done? Do those things first every day and let the rest take their place somewhere else in the day or week, when inspiration is flowing. There is an optimum time and season for every task, and a time and a season in which you’ll enjoy it most.

3) Know that you’re not obligated to take care of anybody besides the clients you’re currently serving and your team. You don’t have to give anyone else’s career or business an assist; you don’t have to contribute to anyone’s project just because they asked; you don’t have to collaborate because someone wonderful invites you to. Generosity is good, but not at the expense of your own basic needs.

4) Focus on the activities you MOST love to do in your business — for me, that’s creating content like blog posts, and teaching and learning materials, for our courses  — and make sure you are building your day around doing those things. Don’t feel bad about handing over the tasks you don’t actually LOVE to do. I appreciate a good spreadsheet, but it’s not my zone of genius; my Project Curator, on the other hand, lives and breathes by them.

Probably none of these suggestions are new to you. But every once in a while, it helps to be reminded.

In the comments, I’d love to hear:

How do you work with — or work around — overwhelm in your life and business?