Ousting Overwhelm

Digital Drawing done in Paper 53 © Cherry Jeffs 2015

The feeling of overwhelm that comes from feeling we need to be digitally everywhere, doing everything is exhausting. Likewise when we take on too many projects and find ourselves flitting from one to the next, never really feeling we are making real progress with anything, we enter into a kind of panic and it's difficult to determine what our priorities should really be.

In the last couple of weeks, I have been focussing on getting just a couple of projects finished as well as meeting a couple of extra deadlines, one of which came in almost at the last minute. It's amazing how much more relaxed I feel, not splitting my attention in so many directions. My days have taken on an inexorable but not unpleasant rhythm and I have felt great relief in finally peaking over the horizon at the land of Complete for projects that seem to have had an eternal presence on my To Do list.

I admit that for the last minute deadline, I needed a second shot of caffeine and a working a rather longer day than normal, but it was worth it to be able to wake up the next day with it marked DONE.

One of the projects has several parts and various applications/ramifications (Newsletter subscribers have already had a sneak preview of this) so I've had to reconcile myself to the idea that 'complete' is a stage. 

Even the act of defining these stages, instead of seeing the whole thing as one conglomerate mass, helps relieve the feeling of overwhelm. I have a Milestone. I can pat myself on the back when I reach it even if I haven't got all the way to the Landmark.

Screenshot from the new 8 Habit Plan for Creative Growth PDF Workbook

Map Your Creative Landmarks

Identifying Landmarks on our creative journey is super-important. Get yours in view with my new 8 Habit Plan for Creative Growth PDF Workbook. I've completely redesigned it from the ground up - including some edits which aren't even in the ePub yet - and 3 worksheet downloads. 

Newsletter subscribers have already had their free copy but if you subscribe to my newsletter before the end of May, I'll send you a bonus preview copy!