You have so many things going on, that it is hard to concentrate on any one of them, and so you get less productive. The trick is to get yourself back in the sweet spot of the curve where you are working at your peak.<h2></h2>

When you’re feeling overwhelmed

If you’re actively feeling overwhelmed you first need to calm down. Close your eyes for a minute. Focus on breathing deeply. Count your breaths. An alternative is to get a little physical exercise. Take a walk.The combination of the exercise and the separation from your workspace for a short period of time can help you to get into the zone to get work done.

Reduce your energy

<div>Start by finding a high-priority task that you feel you can complete in a short period of time. Clear the decks for action and put away any other distractions.</div><div>Now, get to work. If you’re still having trouble concentrating, then just try to get a 5-10 minute burst of activity done. Find the smallest piece of the task that you can accomplish and get that done. </div>

Focus

<div>If you find that you’re being given new things to do at a faster rate than you can possibly complete them, then it is time to sit down with your supervisor and talk. There may be easier ways to do things. Checking in about the workload might allow you to negotiate which tasks are going to be your responsibilities, and which ones can be given to someone else.</div><div></div>

Offload, if necessary

There are days where work just seems like it's closing in on all sides. Your boss has a new deadline for you. Your to-do list stretches on to infinity, and there is a constant stream of Slack messages distracting you every two seconds. When you feel overwhelmed like this, it is hard to get work done.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

timemanagement

Time Management

How to stop feeling so overwhelmed at work

Have the courage to stop what you're doing. Give yourself the space to slow down, so you can see the bigger picture and get a handle on things. Take a day or two to rest, do nothing, and regroup. Center yourself so that you have the energy to make wiser, healthier decisions.

Stop

Lin Yutang said, "besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials." What don't you need to do? What can you delegate or let go of?

Let go of some things

Having too much to do often has to do with unrealistic goal setting and over-committing your time and energy. Are you being overly ambitious? What you can really do?

Commit to less

People who are overwhelmed spread their energy too thinly. When you feel scattered and pulled apart in a lot of different directions, are you willing to pull yourself back in and say "no" to others?

Say no

Look at the bigger picture of your life, and how you really want to spend your precious time and energy. Taking time to contemplate your priorities is key to having focused flow.

Know your priorities

Being overwhelmed goes hand in hand with having a mind full of complicated thoughts and chaos. David Allen reminds us, "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." Are you willing to make your life simpler? Are you willing to make your mind simple, and approach the things in your life with a sense of simplicity?

Simplify

<div>Be willing to focus on just a few things at a time. Put limits on certain activities that aren't important. By limiting your time and energy for certain endeavors, and not allowing yourself to get lost in the day-to-day, you can create more time and space in your life. </div><div></div>

Limit yourself

<div>Oftentimes, an underlying poor self-esteem is the culprit of over-doing and over-committing. Instead of understanding your own needs, you are constantly catering to the needs of others. Be willing to take time for self-care.</div><div></div>

Develop self-esteem

Sometimes we get so lost in feeling stressed and overwhelmed, we forget about what we really do want to feel and experience. Refocusing your attention and intention can help you reset your energy.

Tune in to what you want to feel

Imagine a new lifestyle, from scratch. If you made your health and happiness a priority, what would your day look like? How would you wake up? What would your day consist of? Let your new schedule inspire you and be a natural guide for what you prefer to experience each day.

Re-imagine a new schedule

One of the biggest complaints I hear from clients is overwhelm. It seems to be the thing that everyone suffers from these days. I suffer from it, too. Today we have more responsibilities, infinite choices, and way too many distractions. When you're overwhelmed, space and time collapse.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

habits

Habits

mentalhealth

Mental Health

How To Stop Feeling Overwhelmed (For Good)

<ul><li>As a manager, what tasks am I doing that I was doing before my promotion?</li><li>What tasks would I delegate to a member of an ideal team?</li><li>What team members have the capacity to learn how to do these tasks?</li><li>How can I pass my knowledge along to others to prepare them for these tasks?</li></ul>

Questions To Help You Delegate

<ul><li>Poor physical health</li><li>Personal avoidance</li><li>A decrease in information sharing</li><li>Bad mouthing the company</li><li>Quitting</li><li>Excessive defensiveness</li><li>Social conflicts </li></ul>

Effects Of Stress In The Workplace

<ul><li>Being vulnerable</li><li>Delegating</li><li>Having clear goals and evaluation parameters</li></ul>

How To Decrease a Manager’s Stress

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. There are a lot of stressed out professionals in the workplace. And what leaders don't realize is that much of the stress can be managed by learning to share the burden, becoming more transparent and having a support system. Yet most professionals suffer in silence.

career

Career

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Decrease Your Stress by Letting Your Team Share the Weight

By framing therapy in terms of what we need rather than what we could benefit from, many people experience too much shame or embarrassment to try it.Not everybody needs therapy. But just because you don’t need something doesn’t mean you couldn’t benefit from it.

"Needing" therapy

<ul><li>Understanding how the way we tend to think about things affects our moods and emotions</li><li>Clarifying our values and strategizing about the most effective path toward them</li><li>Learning to communicate directly and assertively in relationships or the workplace</li><li>Building self-confidence in social situations</li><li>Acquiring more effective parenting skills and techniques</li><li>Working through complicated grief or loss</li></ul>

How therapy helps

Ultimately, therapy is about growth and creating opportunities for positive change.And in addition to improving traditional mental health struggles, therapy can also be a powerful and efficient way to make progress on personal goals or aspirations.

Therapy and growth

<ul><li>Stop procrastinating, by finding its causes.</li><li>Getting back on track with your sleep and with habits that lead to good sleep.</li><li>Getting clear about the real reasons that go into unhealthy eating patterns.</li><li>Therapy can help you see how your old patterns of thought and behavior might be getting in the way of good financial decisions today.</li><li>Values clarification helps you to better understand what it is you truly value and carve our practical strategies for moving towards it.</li></ul>

Goals improved with therapy

<ul><li>Crisis and stress management.</li><li>To strengthen a marriage or relationship. Your marriage doesn’t have to be falling apart for marriage counseling or couples therapy to be a good idea.</li><li>To learn more about themselves or to build a specific psychological or emotional skill.</li><li>Emotional support. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on or a patient ear to vent to from time to time.</li></ul>

Reasons people begin therapy

Does everyone need therapy? Of course not. But the better question to ask is: Could everyone benefit from therapy? This article is all about the many ways therapy can be helpful to just about everyone who wants to improve their mental and emotional wellbeing.

communication

Communication

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Does Everyone Need Therapy? | Nick Wignall

Spend 5 to 10 minutes at the end of each day writing in detail about three things that went well that day, large or small, and also describing why you think they happened.This simple practice is effective because it not only helps you remember and appreciate good things that happened in the past; it can also teach you to notice and savor positive events as they happen.

Count your blessings

You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone. Consider the many ways in which important, positive events in your life—such as a job opportunity or educational achievement—could have never taken place, and then reflecting on what your life would be like without them.

Mental subtraction

We have a tendency to adapt to pleasurable things—a phenomenon called “hedonic adaptation”—and appreciate them less and less over time.  We can interrupt this process by trying the <a href="http://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/give_it_up#data-tab-why_you_should_try_it">Give it Up</a> practice, which requires temporarily giving up pleasurable activities and then coming back to them later, this time with greater anticipation and excitement.

Savor

Gratitude can be especially powerful when it’s expressed to others. 

If there is anyone in your life to whom you feel you’ve never properly expressed your gratitude, writing a thoughtful, detailed <a href="http://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/gratitude_letter">Gratitude Letter</a> is a great way to increase your own feelings of gratitude and happiness while also making the other person feel appreciated and valued; it may also deepen your relationship with them.

Say “thank you”

Over the past two decades, much of the research on happiness can be boiled down to one main prescription: give thanks. Across hundreds of studies, practicing gratitude has been found to increase positive emotions, reduce the risk of depression, heighten relationship satisfaction, and increase resilience in the face of stressful life events, among other benefits.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

Four Great Gratitude Strategies

A major component of stress is feeling helpless or alone. Partner with those who understand your vision, limitations, and goals, build a better team and have people to lean on in times of stress.Be sure to figure out what your strengths are and what you need in a partner before taking on any type.

Find Partners Who Understand.

Managing your own expectations about where you see yourself, your team and your company can have a dramatic impact on mitigating much of your stress.Developing realistic deadlines, strategic plans and budgets can ease much of the stress we feel as we strive to grow. Accept where you are in the process and the limitations of yourself and your team, and slowly build from there.

Manage Your Expectations

Stop often and take stock of your physical, mental and emotional health, as they all play a role in how well you handle stress. Be sure you are taking care of yourself in each of these areas before you dedicate all your time to the business.

Don’t Overlook Your Personal Needs

Studies suggest that the way a leader handles stress could have serious consequences for employees and, ultimately, company culture and productivity.A stressed leader can be unpredictable and edgy, and that affects the team’s work satisfaction and performance, possibly even leading people to quit.

Leadership And Stress

Stress is part of all of our lives. But for entrepreneurs and managers, it can be even more overwhelming and carry higher consequences. A new study suggests that the way a leader handles stress could have serious consequences for employees and, ultimately, company culture and productivity.

remotework

Remote Work

How To Better Manage Stress When You're Managing A Team

Research shows being motivated predicts career success better than intelligence, ability, or salary.

Motivation and career success

The things that give us deep happiness are inherently things that take longer and have a big element of meaning in them.And if the task you have to do doesn’t seem meaningful, try reframing your experience. You might not be able to change what you have to do but you can change how you see it.

Focus On The Meaning 

When we feel connected to what we’re doing, when we make something our own, we’re much more motivated.To turn some task you’re handed at the office into something you feel ownership of, make small tweaks that customize what you have to do, that allow you to do it your way.

Take Ownership

What looks dreadful on a to-do list usually isn’t that bad when you’re in the middle of it. Focus on the good feelings in the moment.Often, when you look at a task, you take the outside view: you forget the emotional component. And so something you may actually enjoy seems like a chore.

The Inside View

Research shows being motivated predicts career success better than intelligence, ability, or salary.

3 Rituals That Will Make You More Motivated

Employees that feel they have a positive personal rapport with their management are more likely to be engaged and feel more appreciated when they or their work gets noticed.A great manager should recognize the effort of their team members and appreciate what they have done for the company. So, tell them what a great job they have been doing, or make a small announcement about it during your weekly meetings in front of their colleagues.

Workplace Recognition

To reduce stress in the workplace and increase focus and clarity, encourage your team members to do some physical activity. Physical activity such as yoga and running is also a good way for staff to learn how to pace themselves at work.You can also set some reminders every two hours for your team members to stand up, stretch and rest their eyes by looking out of the window.

Encourage Employees To Move Their Bodies

Allow your team members flexibility by not monitoring them often, if their work is completed by specific deadlines. Remember that salary is not everything.Letting go of rigid work schedules or allowing them to work from home when possible goes a long way to reduce stress in the workplace.

Offer a Flexible Work Environment

With clear goals, your team doesn't have to think about what their initial task was supposed to be. It gets them going and focus on the important task at hand, instead of doing it their way, which could lead them on the wrong track.This also saves time, as they don’t have to redo work to fix mistakes, and gives your team members peace of mind knowing what they need to focus on and why.

Set Clear Goals For Your Team Members

Excessive stress can interfere with your employees' productivity and performance and can also impact their physical and emotional health. This will then eventually affect relationships among colleagues and home life too.Research also indicates that most workers are stressed and half of them feel they need help to manage stress. Be a great manager, take the initiative to help your team reducing their sources of stress

Work And Stress

<ul><li>Poor balance of personal and work lives</li><li>Job insecurity</li><li>Low salaries,</li><li>Excessive workloads,</li><li>Poor peer support,</li><li>Limited prospects for growth or advancement and;</li><li>The task at work that is not engaging or challenging.</li></ul>

Common Sources Of Work Stress

As a great manager, you can reduce stress in the workplace by creating a healthy workplace environment. A healthy workplace environment is ideal when it comes to maintaining a positive outcome in a stressful atmosphere.

How Great Managers Can Help Reduce Stress in the Workplace

Gratitude doesn’t seem to come as easily as grumbling does, and you will likely resist this exercise. Waiting for the resistance to pass is futile. Just do it.

Commit

Sit down with pen and paper or at your computer and start, “I am grateful for …” 
Your gratitude list is a bridge across those troubled waters to a resting place on the other side.

Begin

As you move through your day, pause now and then when you remember and think as you do something “I am grateful.”
Moving through your day with awareness and grace in this way will mean that when you do sit down to write your gratitude list those things will come to mind.

Practice present-moment gratitude

Partner with someone. You will keep each other going and that sense of obligation to that person will give you the push you need to write your list on those days when it just seems too hard.
Reading what the other person has written helps you to access your own gratitude more easily.

Share the gratitude

"When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you." -Lao Tzu Somewhere in the distant past, out here in New Zealand, I recall someone saying to me "Be grateful for small mercies." Back in the 1950s, when I was a small girl, that meant being grateful for the simple things that made up the better part of my life.

writing

Reading & Writing

How to Start a Gratitude Practice and Change Your Life

Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible.  

In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

Gratitude meaning

You can make yourself happier and nurture your relationship with another person by writing a thank-you letter expressing your enjoyment and appreciation of that person's impact on your life.  Make a habit of sending at least one gratitude letter a month.

Write a thank-you note

No time to write? It may help just to think about someone who has done something nice for you and mentally thank the individual.

Thank someone mentally

Make it a habit to write down or share with a loved one thoughts about the gifts you've received each day.

Keep a gratitude journal

Pick a time every week to sit down and write about your blessings — reflecting on what went right or what you are grateful for. Sometimes it helps to pick a number — such as three to five things — that you will identify each week. As you write, be specific and think about the sensations you felt when something good happened to you.

People who are religious can use prayer to cultivate gratitude.

Pray

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the present moment without judgment. Although people often focus on a word or phrase (such as "peace"), it is also possible to focus on what you're grateful for (the warmth of the sun, a pleasant sound, etc.).

Meditate

Depression is more than a passing bout of sadness or dejection, or feeling down in the dumps. It can leave you feeling continuously burdened and can sap the joy out of once-pleasurable activities. In Understanding Depression, find out how effective t...

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Giving thanks can make you happier - Harvard Health

Find 100+ Facts about Health - Curated from popular Videos, Podcasts, Books, Guides & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!