When your brain moves a million miles a minute, it’s super easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of thoughts going through your mind at once.
I am great at learning stuff, it’s the executing what I learned that I’ve had to work on.
When your brain is always searching for its next dopamine rush, executing is rarely as fun as the learning. Executing takes executive functioning skills that those of us with ADHD struggle with.
So, how can you reduce your anxiety around the things you have to do to make it less overwhelming?
I used to think I was overwhelmed because I had too much to do, so I reduced the stuff I had to do and still found myself overwhelmed.
How could that be?
I discovered that while having a bunch of ish to do added to my feeling of overwhelm, it often wasn’t the primary cause of my overwhelm.
I discovered that there were other factors that contributed to my overwhelm that I thought were just a natural part of life.
I want to help you notice the signs early so that you can start digging out before you even get in.
Here’s what not being clear looks and feels like:
- Always feeling like you’re putting out fires.
- Even though you have a to-do list or daily schedule, you feel short on time
- Your day has more to do than time to do it in
Now that you know what not being clear looks like, let’s dig into how it drains you of your precious time and energy.
- Everything feels urgent and important all the time – This feeling leads you to try and do all the things, and it drains your energy faster than a new iPhone update drains your battery. It keeps you confused and anxiety driven.
- You never know where to start – This leads to not starting a thing at all. This is when you find yourself doing non-essential ish trying to find the motivation to start.
- You are busy and overbooked – This is when you find yourself randomly engaging in a task because “you feel like you need to be doing something”, this leaves you exhausted. Also, you find yourself running from task to task without a moment to spare, always running late and always feeling like “if only I had more time”.
In order to combat this overwhelm cycle, you must get clear.
Get clear about what’s going on right now in this holy instant and make it plain.
How do you get clear when everything feels like it’s coming at you all at once?
Small consistent steps, it didn’t take overnight to get into the mess, and you’re not going to get out of it overnight.
Choose one area of your life at a time to gain clarity about your now and next. Don’t worry about if you’re behind or if you’re doing it right, just take action.
It’s so easy for our neurodiverse brains to get caught in analysis paralysis and learn all the steps yet take no action to get there because we don’t feel like we have all the steps to make it perfect.
It will never be perfect, you’ll always have something new to learn and a new way to grow.
Take your time and give yourself space and grace in this journey.
If you need support to create that space for your freedom, I want to invite you to my Simplify My Life Newsletter.
This newsletter is created for professional moms with ADHD to help you reclaim your time, energy and focus without quitting your job or leaving your family.
Share the love and like or share this post with another momma friend who could use the love.
Love yourself, Love your family, Love your life
Charmaine
