Raise your hand with me if you’ve ever looked down at your to-do list and felt a pit in the bottom of your stomach that just honestly makes you want to curl up in a ball and cry. Can you feel me? Please tell me I’m not the only one. That’s called overwhelm. I like to call it overwhelm paralysis. And today I want to tell you how to reduce overwhelm from your to-do list

To me, overwhelm paralysis is when you have so much to do that you just completely freeze up. You don’t know where to begin, so you just don’t even start. Your head is spinning, all you want to do is watch Gilmore Girls and cry a little bit about how you got so behind but you can’t. And then starts an endless cycle like a hamster wheel of chasing freedom from your to-do list that you just can’t ever seem to reach.

I’m going to let you in on the biggest game changer in my business:

Break things down into smaller, actionable steps.

Yes, it’s that simple.

When you were in school, did you ever get an assignment and realize you have an end of term paper that requires you to write 25 pages? What did that teacher make you do? Probably make an outline because once you have this done, writing 25 pages seems like a breeze. It’s the same thing with your creative business.

Since I’m a photographer, I’m going to use that as a quick example: If you’ve ever come home from a double header wedding weekend and been overwhelmed with the 4,324 pictures you now have to cull you know what I’m talking about. I did it this weekend and I got home and for the first time in a long time I felt overwhelm creeping in. But then I sat down at my computer, took a deep breath and I sorted the day into very small sections:

My photomechanic folders (the program used to sort pictures) looked like this:

• Bride Prep
• Bridal Details
• Groom Details
• Groom Prep
• First Look
• Bride and Groom Portraits
• Groomsmen
• Bridesmaids
• Wedding Party…

And so on.

Now, I was only looking at a maximum 300 pictures at a time when I got to reception and I know that my speed of culling can get me through about 100 pictures per minute, if I’m focused. In less than 40 minutes, I had culled over 3,000 pictures and had them imported into Lightroom.

And let me tell you, I have the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to repetitive tasks so this is a huge feat for me.

When I first sat down, I found myself doing ANYTHING I could to not cull 3,000+ pictures. Once I broke it down (and followed the system I created for myself) everything became so much less overwhelming.

If you’re not a photographer, and you’re wondering what else you can break down into small steps here’s a few examples:

1. Writing Blog posts. Make an outline. Write out questions you want to answer and then answer them in paragraph form!
2. Same thing with writing newsletters!
3. Launching a website or product. Break it down so super tiny to give yourself action items that will only take an hour or less.
4. Designing a document. Outline your pages and wireframe sketch them before going into your design program then highlight your sketch as you design each page so you can visibly see positive momentum happening.
5. Cleaning your room! Seriously. I hate this. I put make bed, vacuum, dust, pick up or fold laundry on my to-do list separately so I can do it in bite sized pieces and actually cross things off.

REASONS WHY THIS IS AWESOME

1. You cross WAY MORE things off your to-do list which gives you a sense of accomplishment.
2. It creates momentum to KEEP GOING.
3. Crossing things off probably makes you happy.
4. It’s motivating that something actually got done.  Seriously, imagine if your task was just “edit wedding”… that could take a long time for some people and then you just feel gut punched every time you look at your list and still see it on there.

I hope that helps you reduce the overwhelm of your to-do list! And just remember, not everything needs to be done TODAY. Be realistic with your time. If your to-do list is 15 miles long, don’t expect to get it all crossed off in one day or be upset when you don’t get through it. Set realistic ambitions so you’re not disappointed!

This has been a game changer for me and it’s so easy to do. Try it today and let me know in the comments what you’re going to break down on your to-do list or workflow!

And, if you’ve made it down here, THANK YOU! I have a free gift for you!

Click the image below to get my free workflow guide:

“10 Workflow Hacks for Photographers to Instantly Get Ahead of your To-Do List!”