Over the past few weeks I've felt a little overwhelmed and behind when it comes to my workload. With a house move followed by a nasty throat virus distracting me, I found myself scrambling every day to try and stay on top of my to-do list. Working for myself means that I'm responsible for motivating myself every day to get up and work, and there's nothing worse than feeling behind with your workload and any deadlines. So this past week I've pulled myself together and made sure I end the week feeling much more on top of things, and I wanted to share some advice today for anyone else feeling a little behind and overwhelmed by the many things they need to do.

Get motivated The first step I found important to getting back on track was to find a way to motivate myself to tackle my ever growing to-do list. But how do we motivate ourselves? I shared on ALO a few months back Ways To Stay Motivated, and for me this week another big step to getting back into the right frame of mind was just connecting with others so I could feed of their energy as well. Just spending the day with Rebecca helped me to feel excited and ready to give my work 100% - and my best advice for when you're feeling overwhelmed is to reach out to others and let them help you push through so you can create the awesome work you're capable of.

Assess the situation So once you're in the right frame of mind, the first thing to do is to assess the situation and discover what exactly needs doing. Finding out how far behind you actually are, and what deadlines are looming, helps you then move forward and tackle everything in a productive way. After double checking my calendar and inbox, I wrote down everything that needed to get done so I could see it all out in front of me.

Plan of action Once you can see your big old list of things to do in front of you, that's when you can start to build a plan of action. For me that meant prioritising any looming deadlines and any upcoming content so that I could work my way back to feeling more on top of things. Over stretching ourselves rarely does us any good, so instead of demanding too much from myself in one day I spread out my work across a few so that I'd have enough time to catch up and get things done to a high standard without rushing.

Get things done All the motivation and plans of action in the world mean nothing if you don't actually get the work done. Sometimes we just have to shut our office door, sign out of social media, and put our phones on silent so we can just immerse ourselves in our work and get things done. Sometimes we just have to be a little harsh on ourselves and quit taking things so easy so we actually tackle the tasks at hand, and that feeling once you're back up to date with things? Well, that can't be beat.

So if you're feeling behind and super overwhelmed? Reach out and connect with others so you can find the motivation to keep going, and always remember why you're working so hard. Whether it's studies for a degree or responsibilities for your job or your own business - remind yourself why you're putting in the hours and why it's so important to you. And then build a plan of action and get things done - you can do it, it may just mean a few late nights and a whole lot less of Netflix for a few days.

How about you - what do you do when you feel behind with work?

Jen

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What To Do When You Feel Overwhelmed By Work