Have you found that everything gets a little overwhelming a little faster now? Because that’s definitely how I feel. Since the pandemic began, almost a year ago now, everything seems to happen a little too much a little too fast. It’s probably because I’m at home all the time and it’s easy for all the days to meld together. I’m no longer used to the day to day strain of life in the way I was before.
Which is weird when I think about it, because life is as stressful as it was before. Actually, probably more stressful. Professor’s are making the work load heavier now that everyone is at home all the time, I still have a job, there’s relationship strain. Plus, being cooped up all the time isn’t helping.
And honestly? I don’t think I’m coping with it all very well.
The littlest things seem to set me off these days. I have to keep my phone on silent because notifications when I’m in the middle of something feel too stressful. Is that silly? Maybe. But it’s what I’ve got to do.
The other day was a great example; My boss called me five times to deal with little things that he could’ve sent in an email, I had lectures for five hours, reading to do, assignments to do, applications to fill out, errands to run. It was all way too much. Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed now, but my mom asked me how I was doing and I burst into tears on the spot.
But I did get through it. I turned off my phone, I went for a run, and then I made dinner. After dinner was made and eaten I made a very basic list of what I had left to do that night. It looked like this:
- Do work stuff
- Do school stuff
- Answer friends
- Shower
- Go. To. bed.
Very basic. I didn’t go into the details of what I had to do until I got to that step. I didn’t worry about the school stuff while I was doing the work stuff, I just did the work stuff. And I didn’t turn on my phone again until that list was made.
It actually really helped a lot.
There are two lessons to be had here:
- Lists, even short ones, are the best thing in the world. As basic as they are sometimes, they really are one of the best ways to organize.
- Phones are a huge source of anxiety sometimes. Now that I’m at home all the time I’m on my phone more than ever. In some ways this is good. I get to keep in touch with my friends. In other ways, this is bad and very stressful and overwhelming.
I’m sure there are other lessons to be had here, but those are my two big takeaways.
So now I’m going to make basic lists at the start of every day. Worry about the details later. And I’m going to turn off my phone more often.
If you have better ways to deal with overwhelm please feel free to drop them in the comments. And if you’re feelings this way too, know you’re not alone.
Modest Motions 