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| When life becomes overwhelming, you need a strategy. Hopefully, this post will help. |
Let’s face it, but our lives are nothing like our mothers. A generation ago, more women than not were homemakers. Today, most women work outside of the home either following their dream of a successful career or just to make ends meet with a second income to help support the family. With so much on our plates, our daily lives can often run like a circus with us juggling many tasks at once.
In order to keep everything in balance, we need to stop being so hard on ourselves. Just because your friend or neighbor seems to be on top of everything doesn’t mean that you need to compete with her. There is no reward waiting for her just because that friend had a tidier house or cooked an elaborate meal while you are still struggling picking up after the kids in between waiting for the microwave to ring for a frozen prepared meal of unknown origin that you are about to subject the family too.
The moment that you ease up all that pressure that you put on yourself is when you will accomplish more–and only what you are physically capable of. Once that you put a conscious effort to stop worrying about the habits of what you think others do, the less stress you’ll have.
Another likely reason you may be multitasking more and more projects all the time can be thought of like an escape when you are feeling overwhelmed. After all, when you are busy, then you don’t usually dwell on problems but more the task at hand. Occupying your mind is good for temporarily coping with problems, but instead of piling on more to your to-do-list, you might want to try completing the projects that are already there. Think of each completed one as a victory over that stress that keeps driving you to start another project that you can’t finish.
If you also find yourself multitasking doing too many things at once out of obligation because it is expected of you, then you are only hurting yourself. Feeling swamped by everything that you possibly can’t handle can only lead to stress, failed results and misunderstandings with whatever it is that you are doing falls through. Be realistic about what you can do will help you so much more than promising something that you can’t deliver.
Then again, you could be using multitasking simply because you’re a perfectionist that doesn’t trust others to do any of the chores to your satisfaction. By learning to delegate some of those tasks to others may be a struggle at first, but guide them through. You will be surprised at the results and the relief you will feel as that stress leaves.
The most important thing you can do for this problem of multitasking is to prioritize what’s important in your life. Whether it is family, work, or friends remember what is the most valuable to you is the best way not to let other aspects of your life interfere.
