Fighting Overwhelm

1. You’ll hear me say this often – The hardest part is getting started. Once you begin a project it never seems as overwhelming. Here are 5 tips to help you break through inertia and get going:

2. Break the project down into manageable parts and list each part as a separate step. It’s called “swiss cheesing” and it works. Each step should be simple, specific and quick to implement.

3. Start somewhere – anywhere! If you can’t figure out where to begin, just dive in. You may have to get in the middle of it to figure out where the first step actually is. You can always regroup and head in a different direction once you’re under way.

4. Get the most difficult part of a project behind you by taking care of it first.

5. Make yourself be accountable by asking a friend or colleague to check with you in 24 hours or whenever appropriate to make sure you are staying on task. If you’re seriously procrastinating, make yourself work on the project for just 15 minutes the first time. Set a timer if necessary – but just do it. Tell yourself you can do this if it’s just 15 minutes. That short period of concentration will, in all likelihood, push you past your block. If it doesn’t use the 15 minute system every day, until you either finish the project.

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