Overwhelmed and eliminating it: The series

For a long time, I’ve wanted to do a month long series on DMS. I love the ones that Money Saving Mom, and several other bloggers, do. They’re informative, helpful, encourage action, and are engaging. But I didn’t want to do something like housecleaning or how to declutter or organizing your finances or renovating your grocery shopping habits. Those have already been done by Money Saving Mom and a number of other bloggers; I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. And those series are also really, really good. Probably better than what I could come up with (if you’re interested in those, I’ll be happy to point you in their direction).

So I decided to focus on something else. It’s more…feelings oriented but it’s a feeling that, if we’re not careful, can have a series impact on our finances. What am I talking about? I’m talking about feeling overwhelmed.

I once wrote a post about how I get overwhelmed and intimidated by other bloggers, specifically the fact that most of them seem more ambitious, dedicated, and creative than I. Many bloggers seem to have a number of successful ventures running at one time but meanwhile, I can’t even finish half a thought without getting sidetracked. While this has improved slightly since I wrote that last post, I still find myself getting overwhelmed with just how much there is to do.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has a problem with this. So I figured we could work through it together.

The series will focus 21 tasks I’ve established to manage feeling overwhelmed with work, life, blogging (or whatever hobbies you have), and everything else that happens on a basis. Starting Friday 5/3 (spending freeze recap will be tomorrow), and throughout the month of May, we’ll discuss a problem that causes anxiety and feeling overwhelmed and actions we can take to fix the problem (and we’ll also talk about how it can affect your finances. This is a personal finance site after all!). We’ll further the discussion on Facebook so make sure to like Daily Money Shot and participate in those discussions. I’d love your input!

Here’s the master list of tasks we’ll discuss (note—while the list is not in order, the tasks will be written in such a way that you can build on each new task with the previous one):

1. Get organized
2. Tackle one task at a time
3. Make a list and prioritize that list
4. Take a break
5. Do a social media detox
6. Create a schedule
7. Accept your weaknesses
8. Play to your strengths
9. Don’t compare your situation to others
10. Ask for help
11. Limit your obligations
12. Take a day off
13. Make time for yourself
14. Minimize and/or simplify
15. Automate your finances
16. Keep one master calendar
17. Eliminate things you don’t like
18. Create a meal plan
19. Do what works for you
20. Set goals. Write them down.
21. Realize that it’s okay not to be perfect

A quick reminder: I am not a mental health professional. This series is based entirely on my experience living with anxiety and a paralyzing sense of feeling overwhelmed. If you are experiencing severe anxiety, depression, or any other type of mental dis-ease (got this from Joe Pantoliano’s book Asylum. A great read, by the way), please seek professional help.

So, who’s ready to conquer the beast of overwhelmedness (is that a word? No? It is now).