Do you sometimes find things a bit overwhelming? That feeling when nothing seems possible because everything is all jumbled up and it is just one massive ball of things to do, prepare and sort out!

Have you tried a To Do List?  Sometimes just writing things down helps, it gets all those tasks out of your head so they aren’t all racing around chasing each other but can be referred to as and when needed.  However sometimes the list in itself is overwhelming!!

There are lots of ways of having a To Do List.  There is the old school way of actually writing it down, on a scrap of paper or in a notebook, in a diary or workbook – whichever works for you.  This may be old school but does allow for sub-lists, pictures, mind maps, whatever helps.  Alternatively, you can use lists on your phone which is easy to do and can be set up to suit yourself.  Probably the easiest for most of us who use technology via our phones is to download an App – there are hundreds and they each have benefits to suit the user.

That’s the easy bit!!

Once you have populated the list in whatever format you find easiest, there are a few ways to make it seem less overwhelming by “chunking it down”

Firstly, prioritise those things that you absolutely need to do and if necessary put a date or time limit on them. Secondly divide all the other items into key things and bonus (nice to have) things.  Hide things that are irrelevant so they don’t stress you when you aren’t going to get to them, these are things that you may want to delegate to others if possible.  Make your list daily so you know what you need to focus on today rather than concentrating on things that could wait.

The benefits of all this are that the list helps you to remember and it’s easy to add details as required, you can set priorities easily as you can quickly see what needs to be done quickly and what can wait, it helps you co-ordinate smaller things and perhaps asking for assistance with some of them, it helps you track your progress in any number of things but most importantly it helps relieve anxiety and stress as it is there to be referred to at any time.