Feeling Overwhelmed With Work? Tips To Reduce Work Stress

Are you feeling buried under a mountain of tasks and deadlines? Are you struggling to catch your breath in the relentless whirlwind of work demands? If you’re feeling overwhelmed with work, you’re not alone. In this episode of Calmly Coping, we’ll dive deep into the challenges of work overload and the toll that it can have on your well being.

I’ll be giving you a pep talk to help you regain your footing, find balance and carve out a sense of calm amidst the chaos. So if you’re ready to break free from the grip of work overwhelm and reclaim your peace of mind, tune in and let’s get started.

Welcome to calmly coping and welcome back. If you are a returning listener, my name is Tati Garcia and I’m a licensed therapist and coach specializing in high functioning anxiety. I help high achievers. Stop putting themselves last so they can feel calm, balanced, and confident from within. If this topic interests you, then please like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so you’ll be notified every time I release a new episode.

Thank you so much for tuning in. Feeling overwhelmed. It’s that feeling of being buried, swamped. inundated with tasks, feeling like you can’t even breathe and you don’t know where to go next. You don’t know how to escape because oftentimes there feels like there is no escape. The reality is that 64 percent of Americans feel stressed at work.

And employees who feel overwhelmed with work are 33 percent less productive than those who are not overwhelmed. It’s like trying to juggle too many balls at once, feeling like if you drop just one, then they’re all gonna fall. Your arms are tired from the effort, and the fear of failure looms overhead like a storm cloud, threatening to burst.

At any moment, that’s how it can feel when you’re overwhelmed and it can be really uncomfortable and really stressful and anxiety provoking and as well as Make you feel helpless and I want to help you to get out of that place because just because you’re feeling overwhelmed Now does not mean that you’re gonna feel that way forever and there are things that you can do to get out of this feeling so that you can feel more present and so that you can be more intentional with the actions you take towards a the things that you’re working on.

So work overwhelm can come from many different sources. It can come from heavy workloads, tight deadlines, having high expectations either put upon you by yourself and or by others, having unclear expectations as to what it is that you’re supposed to be doing or experiencing challenging work dynamics with your colleagues.

So these are just a few of the sources of work overwhelm and it can feel sometimes like it is all encompassing because work tends to constitute a big part of our lives. So first, let’s talk about things that you can do when it comes to your mindset and your emotions to help to clear out this overwhelm.

So I have a calm, balanced, and confident framework, and that’s what we’re going to be using and approaching. And using different bits and pieces from that framework in order to help you to tackle this overwhelm. So when it comes to the calm, what can help is practicing emotional awareness, becoming more aware of how you’re feeling because just labeling and naming your emotion can help to deactivate how strong that feels for you.

So whether that is, I’m feeling overwhelmed or whether there’s more going on there, maybe it is, I’m afraid of failing. Maybe it is, I am feeling frustrated with everything that’s being put on my plate. Maybe it’s, I’m feeling resentful towards my employer, whatever is going on there. See if you can name all the emotions that are coming up for you right now.

It can take only a few seconds, but it can be something that’s very powerful and can also help to increase your emotional awareness and intelligence over time, which will allow you to cope with stress better in the future. So there are also different stress reduction techniques that you can use. This may be something that you have heard a million times again and again.

But sometimes taking a deep breath can really help you to deactivate some of that stress that you’re experiencing, especially when it comes to feeling anxious. We often tend to breathe into our chest and those shallow breaths just reinforce the stress and the anxiety that you might be feeling. And when you can breathe all the way into your belly, that’s actually activating your body’s parasympathetic nervous system, which is the relaxation response.

So if you can set a timer for three minutes and be sure to If it helps, put your hands on your belly and take a deep breath in through your nose and feel that belly rise as you do that and then exhale through your mouth and let it out and you should feel your belly fall. Practicing this for a few breaths can really help you and if you’re able to do it right now while you are listening to or watching this, it can help to decrease those stress levels that you’re feeling.

Simultaneously with this, Or an alternative to this can be to release any physical tension you notice in your body. We tend to carry emotions and especially stress in our body as physical tension. So if you notice, are your shoulders up to your ears? Is your neck tight? Is your back tight? Do you feel tension in your lower back or your hips or your jaw or behind your eyes?

Wherever it is, See if you can tune into this and release any of that tension that you notice building up. Just taking a few seconds to do something like that can seem minor, but it can help to reduce that stress from continually building up and tightening up over the day, which is just going to reinforce that feeling of overwhelm that you’re experiencing.

So anything you can do to release, let go of any of that physical tension. This can also be a mental reminder. for your brain when you’re changing your physiology within your body to, okay, can we let go of any of the excess stress or pressure that we are holding onto? So those are some physical things that you can do to reduce stress that can be done anywhere.

any time. Now let’s talk about the mindset shifts that can help because when it comes to your mindset, the way that you think about things that can have a powerful influence on the way that you feel. So first it can help to ask yourself, what do I have control over right now? And sometimes it can help to actually list out.

What’s on your mind? What’s going on? And what of the things that you’re listening out? Do you actually have control over? Can you actually take action on when I’m feeling overwhelmed? This is often my go to, I will grab my journal and I will write down. Okay, what’s on my plate right now? What is going on?

What’s going through my mind? And writing it down can help to give you some clarity as to what’s going on and then give you some focus as to what is the next step that you want to take. So doing kind of like a brain dump and then shifting your mindset to see, okay, is this all something that needs to be done today?

Are these things that I even have control over? When it comes to the things that you do not have control over, see if it’s possible to let go of those things or maybe to work through how you’re feeling about those things if it’s things that are really bothering you. And maybe you can write through or journal through those things and then focus on what do I have control over right now.

If there’s something that you have been putting off, procrastinating, delaying, and it’s really eating at you, sometimes it can help to just. Check that thing off, get that thing done to relieve some of that stress that you might be feeling, especially if it’s something that might take 20 minutes or less.

It can be worth it to get that thing done and check it off of your list because that can help to get you out of that place. of feeling like it’s hanging over your head. You may not necessarily want to do this for everything, but especially if there are these things that kind of have been looming over you and you’ve found yourself in a place of continually putting those things off.

This kind of brings me to the idea of prioritizing. And this can be another way of shifting things when it comes to that balance piece that I spoke about. When you want to maintain balance, part of that is looking at and seeing, okay, you cannot do everything right now, but what is a priority right now?

What is the most important thing? If whether it’s something that is time sensitive or whether it is something that is important or urgent, those are the things that you want to focus on and see if you can get those other things off of your list or potentially ask for help. Is it possible for you to delegate?

Is it possible for you to ask for support from a colleague? Is it possible for you to Discuss things with your supervisor and be realistic and say this is the time that I have available for these tasks Within this time I can prioritize this and I only have time for one or two things. What is the priority right now?

What should I be focusing on? This can also help if you’re in that place Like I mentioned before of lacking clarity when it comes to work or lacking direction if you can be up front with whoever it is that you’re working for, or if you’re working for yourself, even ask yourself these questions. What is the priority?

What is the thing that is most important for me to be spending my time on? This is something that I often do in my business as somebody who is self employed with. Two businesses. I have tons of things that I wanna be doing and that I could be doing. The reality is that I don’t have the time to do them all, and so I will often, if there’s something I wanna do, then maybe I schedule it for the next month or two months from now or even later on in the year if I know that.

Right now my priority is something else and I just don’t have the time to focus on that thing. It doesn’t mean that it’s completely off my list and I’m going to forget about it, but I put it somewhere in my planning system so that I know this is something that’s important that I want to return to, but the reality is I’m only one person and I can’t focus on this right now.

Another way that you can shift your mindset is to ask yourself, What is the worst that could happen if I don’t get to all of these things? Oftentimes we are fearing these catastrophic consequences, losing your job, something terrible happening, or whatever that worst case imagined scenario is for you.

Then when the reality is that you can handle much more than you give yourself credit for, and I promise. that the circumstances are not as bad as you make them out to be. And especially if you’re somebody who’s listening to this episode, you may be somebody who is ambitious and high achieving. And if that’s the case, I’m guessing that you’re not the kind of person who just lets things go and doesn’t do their responsibilities or fulfill the things they have to do.

And sometimes we can feel like we need to go 150 percent. When in reality, doing 100 percent is absolutely sufficient and enough. And another way to think about this is to ask yourself, what if things go well? What if I’m able to prioritize things, focus on what needs to happen, and I do an excellent job?

And, you know, another way to look at this is that sometimes when we are spread too thin, that makes it hard to make progress in any direction. Whereas if we can dwindle down or simplify our focus and clarify that to just a few things at one time, or even better, just one thing at one time. And I don’t mean literally at one time, but like focus on a few projects at one time, then that will allow you to actually make more progress forward in the long run.

When you can simplify your focus rather than feeling like you are spread in a million directions. I’m going to keep going back to prioritizing that can be super powerful, not just for helping to reduce overwhelm, but also for helping to reduce your amount of productivity and the quality of your work that you’re putting into things.

Also, when it comes to your mindset, reminding yourself that you are allowed to rest, you are allowed to take time for yourself. You are allowed to reassess the way that you can spend your time because whether you work for somebody else, you work for yourself, you’re a freelancer, whatever it is, you deserve and need to take time for yourself to rest.

And if you’re constantly in a state of overwhelm, then that is not helping anybody. And so it’s important for you to. Take a step back and sometimes taking a step back can help to give you the renewed fresh perspective that you need to approach things more intentionally rather than being kind of stuck in the weeds and feeling like everything is a fire that needs to be put out when in reality, when we can step away and realize that not everything’s going to fall apart when we step away, especially if we have the proper systems and delegation set up to keep things running.

Whenever necessary, when we do step away, then you can realize that you can see the bigger picture of things and realize what is the most important thing for you to focus on. And ultimately, above all, when you’re in a place of feeling overwhelmed, self compassion is key. This is the act of being kind to yourself and speaking to yourself like you would to a friend.

Remember that this feeling won’t last forever, and there are steps that you can take to get out of this place. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now, know that you’re not alone. It’s okay to feel this way. We all struggle with this from time to time. I know I personally do, and when you can have the tools and know what to do, or even just keep this episode saved for when you’re feeling overwhelmed with work, so you can revisit it as a reminder, That can be really powerful and help you to take actionable steps towards getting out of that place rather than feeling stuck and drowning and getting deeper into that hole.

If you’re looking for more support to help you to create work life balance and feel calmer from within as a high achieving professional, I have a free training for you. It is a simple to the point 45 minute training with practical actionable steps that you can take to help you to create more balance in your life.

So you can stop feeling overwhelmed all the time. You can learn more and sign up for this free training by going to calmly coping. com slash workshop. And while you wait for next week’s episode, I have other episodes about calming your mind, creating work life balance and feeling more confident from within.

So be sure to check out these episodes here. Thank you so much for tuning in today and until next time be calm.