I’m so behind

I'm so behind.

How often do you feel this way?

When you're feeling behind, you'll frantically spend your day rushing around, trying to playing catch up (sometimes just in your head, not even doing actual work). You'll get annoyed with interruptions - you have no time for that. But then you'll also find yourself accidentally scrolling. By the end of the day, you're somehow not even caught up. In fact, your list feels longer. You have no idea how you even spent your time. You just know that you felt really busy but you didn't seem to make any actual progress.

Feeling behind is optional.

It's not caused by the things on your to-do list or the demands others place on you or the responsibilities you have in your life.

In fact, it's not a feeling at all. It's a thought that sounds like:

"I have so much to do."
"I just need to get caught up."
"I don't even know where to start."
"I can't believe I forgot about that. They're going to be pissed. I'm such an idiot. I should have written that down."
"I really need to get my shit together."

These thoughts are coming from the (flawed) premise that if you're hard on yourself, you'll make the changes you want to make: Get organized with your time, be prepared and ready for your week, feel calm in the morning, and have plenty of time for everything you want and need to do, without rushing.

And while criticizing yourself into action often does work in the short term, it doesn't lead to long lasting change.

Here's what will work to create long-lasting change:

- Creating safety for yourself by taking the pressure and criticism off so you can slow down and evaluate how you want to be spending your time

- Understanding why you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed and distracted, and knowing how to shift into feeling calm and focused instead

- Making high-level decisions about what's important and what isn't, ahead of time so your day isn't booked back to back AND the most important things get done, no matter what

- Learning how say no, ask for help, or request for things to be done in a different way, as the expert (without feeling apologetic or guilty)

- Knowing that there's no better time than right now to start making these changes. Waiting for life to slow down or get easier will just have you delaying  feeling calm and productive

When you know how to do these things, you'll feel prepared and ready for the day. You'll work calmly and efficiently and, at the end of the day, you'll know you've done enough. This makes it so much easier to set work boundaries and actually enjoy your downtime. 

If this is you, and you're ready to stop feeing behind, and try things a different way because you know the way you're doing it right now isn't working, schedule a free consult here.