Taking on more tasks and responsibilities than you can handle comfortably can make your feel overwhelmed, says Eileen Chadnick, principal at Big Cheese Coaching in Toronto and author of Ease: Manage Overwhelm in Times of Crazy Busy. And that stress can limit your ability to think.
“When confronted with complexity,” Chadnick says, “you want to be able to prioritize and problem solve with the best brain capacity available to you. But when you’re overwhelmed, you’re only working on half a ‘brain battery’.”
Chadnick recommends a toolbox of strategies to ease stress in times of what she calls “overwhelm”:
1. Write down your priorities
It’s easy to get mentally bogged down by the weight of responsibilities from your business and your personal life. This overwhelmed feeling can hamper your ability to focus on your clients during meetings, for example.
“If clients see a financial advisor forgetting things or appearing to be stressed, it can erode their trust in the advisor’s competency,” Chadnick says.
Her solution? “Write it down.”
Make a list of all your priorities, ranging from long-term goals to daily activities. With your list in writing, you no longer have to dwell on it — but you won’t forget your responsibilities, either. This step helps reduce worry and avoid stress-triggers, Chadnick says.
2. Create a schedule
Advisors often tell clients to “pay yourself first” by putting away personal savings before allocating money elsewhere. Chadnick says advisors also need to start thinking about paying themselves first — with time.
Block out chunks of time in your calendar to focus on certain tasks, like research or client communications. Knowing that a particular hour is set aside for that task can fuel your brain, Chadnick says. And it is an antidote to that overwhelmed feeling.
3. Stop trying to multitask
Don’t try to perform two or more tasks at once. Your brain can focus on one thing at a time.
“With multitasking, we think we’re being more productive,” Chadnick says. “What’s really happening is that the brain is toggling and switching [between tasks]. As a result, we’re diffusing energy, and we may end up being less productive.”
You might be tempted to stop everything you’re doing and answer an email as soon as it lands. But that distraction prevents you from concentrating deeply on the task at hand.
Attempting to multitask also wastes energy, leaving you feeling mentally depleted. Stop trying to multitask, Chadnick says, and focus on one single task for 20 minutes — whether it’s work-related or not.
“You will notice it’s like a mini vacation,” Chadnick adds. “You will be refueled. It’s way better than a sugar hit.”