Sometimes I wish life was so simple and we always stay on the mountaintop. However, that isn't life. One day, you wake up and it seems like everything is going wrong. You have so much to do and so many places to go. We've all had those days, weeks, months, years.
Stress is unhealthy. Too much going on equal stress. When I was a supervisor at a car finance company, my friend Linda and Tiffany would tell me, "get it out of your head and put it on paper." I kept everything that needed to be done at work and home all in my head. Overwhelmed and stressed. I would tell them I didn't have time to write it down. They encouraged me anyway.
I wrote down everything that was past due, due, due shortly, things to be done, and anything that was in my head. When I did, it was such a relief just doing that much. However, now that it was on paper, I could sort it better.
Things to turn over to God. There are some things that we have no control of the situation or outcome. Those I would pray and just turn over to God.
Things to turn over to people at work. There were some that I could have others at work to do to help me. Sometimes it is a pain to train someone over and over again. Sometimes it's a scary to let your boss or co-workers know that the workload has gotten to be too much. However, there are jobs that the workload will continually mount. I had gotten to the point where I was doing 10% of each task and doing the minimum. My quality of work diminished. No one knew but me for the moment. I wrote down everything I was doing and how much time they took. I had a good boss who knew I worked hard. He agreed to hire someone. I turned over a couple of the tasks. Now those tasks got 100% attention and the company was better for it. My stress decreased for a while. When you work on a business project, certain parts are expected to increase. Several times as the project ramped up, I had to turn over some of my work and responsibilities to someone we hired. It is always better to be open and upfront then someone find out you didn't do something because you don't have time with other high priority work.
Things to turn over to people at home. Some I had to train or ask my kids or my husband at the time. Of course, that took time and patience. However, they did do some things. Laundry was one of them. I preferred them to be done a specific way. Then the laundry is folded and put away. I had to settle for them washing in cold water alone. I looked at their tags and it could be done. Afterward, I bought clothes that could. I wanted them in the correct drawers even if they didn't fold them. That was so if I had to help them find the clothes, I knew where they were. So we taped pictures of what should be in the drawers. This alone was a relief because when you have four kids and two kids like your own, that gave a minimum of three loads of laundry a day. Peace from stress was better than perfection.
Things to prioritize. What was left was what I had to accomplish. So I can't do them all at one time. So I had to prioritize my list. Past due and almost due stuff I would call and see if it can be pushed a little. At work, I asked my boss what they considered the highest priority of the many high priority items I had on my plate. At home, I asked my husband at the time what I should do. Most of the time, he let me decide but it felt good to let him know I was overwhelmed. I was never a list person. But having a list in priority order helped me stay focused on what was important. There was something extra I hadn't counted on. The sense of pride and feeling of accomplishment with each item, I completed and crossed off my list.
We all go through days of being overwhelmed or stressed. What positive way, do you handle it?