So often we feel overwhelmed as women. We wear a lot of hats and operate in many roles. It’s a privilege to do so but at times our schedules can feel so out of control and cause us to become overwhelmed. Are you feeling overwhelmed? Are the piles on your desk growing? Do you have home-based needs and projects to do that aren’t getting done? Perhaps you have a closet that’s overflowing or something else that is piling up waiting for your attention.

Life gets busy — Family. Work. Ministry. Friendships and more! Oh my!

Do you struggle to go to bed a reasonable hour? Do you toss and turn at night until your bed looks like a war zone? Could it be that you have so much on your mind that you can’t sleep peacefully? Do you clock watch all night? Again, feeling overwhelmed? Are you laying in bed…

• Thinking about everything you needed to do that day that didn’t get done
• Thinking about what you need to do tomorrow
• Thinking about what you will have to put-off or rearrange to make up for what you didn’t do today

Whew! It’s overwhelming just writing about it.

It may be that some of your day time hours are being absorbed by things that don’t really fit your needs and values — things that clutter your creativity, distract your focus and hinder your accomplishments. Perhaps some unexpected situations have come about and it’s caused you to have to change your schedule. Whatever the situation, feeling overwhelmed is no fun! There are all sorts of tips to manage our time. I’m going to share 7 with you that I think will help you if you put them to regular practice.

1.  Stop hitting the snooze button: 
Oh that dreaded alarm clock. It goes off and you feel as if you just went to sleep because you were wrestling all night long. You hit that snooze button for 15 more minutes. It rings again. You hit it again for another 15 minutes and then another. You are now getting up 45 minutes later then you planned. What does that have to do with being overwhelmed? If you set your clock for 6:00 am and you hit the snooze button two or three times you are now 30 to 45 minutes late with getting up and that means you will probably have to RUSH.

While you may think rushing is good. It’s really not. Rushing is telling your mind and body to hurry up because you are going to be late or because you were already behind in the days responsibilities and now you are further behind. Allowing yourself the time that you need in the mornings will allow you to enter into the day more calmly. I don’t like to rush and I don’t like to be late anywhere.  I allow the time that I need in the mornings to prepare myself for the day. I enjoy a cup of Hot Chai Tea, some prayer time and a little chat with my husband and text the grandchildren before running into my work day. I feel calmer by the time I walk into my office.

2.  Set up your day, the day before:
As much as possible set up for tomorrow, the day before. Make sure the kids homework is done and packed. Prepare lunches the night before. Check the weather to anticipate what to wear the next day. Put your clothes, shoes, and accessories out in advance. Once a week full your gas tank so that you don’t get into a car that’s on “E” and have to rush to the gas station. Establish what you will have for dinner the following evening so that you can make any necessary preparations. When I was raising children I prepared dinner two-three days at a time and stored it in the freezer to save time.

If you own your own business check your planner the night before to see what’s on the agenda. Are you ready for it? Is your office as neat as you can get it at the end of your work day so that you don’t walk into the previous days mess and feel overwhelmed instantly? You get my point. There’s so much that we can do the day before to prepare for the next day. It will significantly cut down on the stress. Take an hour and work on the needs of the next day. You’ll see the benefits quickly.

3.  Turn off Facebook Notifications:
Are you involved in groups on social media specifically Facebook? Groups can be great — informative, connecting but if you are a part of a group that posts very often and it’s crowding your Inbox and distracting you, you may have to turn off the notifications and depending on how significant of a distraction it is, you may have to politely leave the group.

Just think for a moment how much time you spend reading the posts throughout the day? Time yourself and see if you are giving more time to reading and responding than you are to actively working on your own personal goals. It may be time for a time-out. If it’s a group that is of value to you then turn off notifications and schedule a time once or twice per week to give 30 minutes to going back through posts on that group page. But don’t get stuck there. I know how hard it is. But I also know the benefit of turning off those notifications so that I can focus on what’s really important for my goals.

4.  Remove yourself from Social Media, Blogs and Newsletter subscriptions that aren’t beneficial to you:
A client of mine told me that she is on over 100 pages on Facebook. She only has time to really connect with four of the pages but she doesn’t want to remove herself from the rest because she’s concerned that those people will also remove themselves from her page and her “follow” count will diminish.

Friends, it’s perfectly OK to remove yourself from pages or subscriptions that are not beneficial to your focus at this time. It’s not personal. It’s using wisdom. Free yourself from the need to have follows and likes. Relationship building and connecting on social media is far more important than seeing your numbers increase and never connecting with the people. Freeing yourself will remove that overwhelming feeling of pages scrolling down your feed that you don’t need or have time to read. Or watching your Inbox count rise to 2,000 or more from email subscriptions you don’t have time to read.

Give yourself an hour, go to Facebook and click on your Likes then go through and remove yourself from the pages that you never have time to visit or from the pages that don’t fit with your values, personal or professional needs. Then, give yourself another hour to go through your Inbox and unsubscribe from the lists and newsletters that you don’t have time to read.

I shared 4 of the 7 with you here. I will share the remaining tips in another post. Be sure to subscribe to my Blog on the right sidebar so that you don’t miss a post.  If you put any of the these tips to use, let me know how it works for you.  If you have other tips that you use to manage your time and reduce or avoid feeling overwhelmed, I’d love to hear it. Share below in the comments.

Until next time, cheering you on!

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