Eric Brosch's Key Ideas from Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present
by Nick Trenton

• Avoid - Some things are negotiable or avoidable. Look to remove or work around stressors where possible
• Alter - Be honest about your needs.
• Accept - Acknowledge your feelings. If you've been wronged, try to find a way to forgive. Forgiveness allows you to move on rather then dwell on a past slight.
• Adapt - If we can't change the situation, we can try to change the way we respond to it.

When you see stress coming on, pause, breathe and do the following. Find:

• 5 things you can see.
• 4 things you can touch.
• 3 things you can hear.
• 2 things you can smell.
• 1 thing you can taste

Linger on each and take it in completely. The goal is to redirect your attention to other things. You can't focus on stressors when fully engaging your other senses.

Label each of your tasks as either:

Important or unimportant

and

Urgent or not urgent

• Important and urgent tasks get done immediately. Reserve some time each day for these, but if you find yourself always having several, re-evaluate what is causing so many.
• Important and not urgent tasks get scheduled to be done at a particular time. It's good to have scheduled time for routine tasks which often fall into this category.
• Not important and urgent tasks should be delegates of possible. Say no if possible.
• Not important and not urgent tasks should be deleted where possible.

1. Literally visualize your workflow. Put your work on a board where you can see it later out in front of you and see each item's status.
2. Minimize "WIP" (work in progress). Take a task to completion rather than having multiple in progress at once.
3. Watch for possible efficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
4. Build in time to review your workflow and check on your progress.
5. Experiment and learn from your successes and failures.

Give yourself time to focus exclusively on a single task, deeply. This also allows you to set a deadline to prevent open-ended tasks from dragging on for too long.

Schedule more complex tasks for time when your brain is most capable of deep work. Schedule time for more shallow work when your brain is less focused.