I don’t mean to act like you’ve never heard this idea before. It’s one that bears repeating, though, similar to the idea that you should wait ten seconds before responding to something in anger. That’s a pretty good one. Sometimes ideas are just good, and it helps to hear them every once in a while. Here’s the one I’m talking about now: If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of things you have to do, just start by doing one of them.
The holiday season is a particularly important time to remember this, as it tends to, every year, be a lot more stressful and overwhelming than we remember. The season is essentially an additional job — managing a schedule of get-togethers, buying gifts, decorating, traveling, participating in merriment — on top of however many jobs you already have. It’s nice, and I love it, but it can also kind of suck. Sometimes when you feel like you’re drowning in responsibilities and obligations, it can be hard to decide where to start. A useful tool in navigating it, though, is this: to just do something.
A lot of times I find myself feeling sort of frozen with panic, feeling like I have to do absolutely everything right now. I have to do it now. Oh no, time is passing and I’m not doing everything. Oh my God. How do I do everything? Everything needs to be done right now! We can’t do everything, though. We can only do something, which is what we should do.
Pick something and do that, and then move on to something else. It’ll help, I bet.