When I am overwhelmed I freeze up. I’m not talking about people telling me things I don’t want to hear or deadlines crashing down overwhelmed. I’m talking about ‘you have 24 hours to complete 47 tasks that take 3 hrs apiece’ overwhelmed. It happens more than I’d like to admit. It mostly happens because I set myself up that way. It isn’t so much that I have 24 hrs, but more that I give myself 24 hrs from awareness of any given task to completion of that task. That’s a ‘weird old trick‘ I picked up somewhere along the way to avoid procrastination. However, it only triggered additional procrastination, because the moment you realize that you’re going to fail to do everything you need to do, it becomes that much easier to avoid doing anything you need to do.
Nowadays I give myself till I go to sleep.
I don’t try to do every task. Instead I do a triage and determine what things are the most important. I usually can complete around 3 major tasks a day depending on the time requirements for each. I can do this because I say: I’m going to do Task A today and if I get the time I’m doing B. This way I feel less responsible to force out C or even B. I focus on what’s important and once that is complete I look at how much time I have left and jam whatever I can into those remaining hours.
I’m no organization or time management expert. In truth I suffer from a genetic illness known as Chronic Disorganizatia. However, by recognizing this illness and being patient with myself, I can function and complete tasks like a normal human being can.
On the good days I even look organized.