Overwhelm (verb) - Bury or drown beneath a huge mass; Defeat completely; Give too much of a thing to someone, inundate

A lot of people find December overwhelming but not me. I have a small tribe and I am a strong introvert so I don’t have tons of shopping and an overbooked social schedule to balance. I get overwhelmed in January. Being out of routine for 3+ weeks leaves me with an enormous TO DO list in the early days of January – both personally and professionally. As a self-confessed efficiency/organization nerd, you would think I would be in my glory but that is never my initial feeling. Somehow, despite all my years and experience, I get a sense of overwhelm about how many things need to get done.

Confession time…… when that sense of overwhelm creeps over me I actually lose my mind, get completely and ridiculously mired in minutia. When that happens I start wildly adding to the TO Do list! I add ore – get more overwhelmed and add even more! I continue this cycle until something completely minuscule and ludicrous hits the list…. Make dinner…. Shower….. go to bed. Once I see how preposterous I have become I step back and put a real plan and schedule together. Once this is done I launch right into the tasks and the big feelings of overwhelm quickly subside. I am always amazed how quickly I finish the list!

Going forward I think I will try and take a page from the Nike playbook and “Just do it!”Tree Toad Consulting