Feeling Tired? Sleep May Not be What You Need

I’ve been feeling tired lately. After 8 hours sleep, I climbed out of bed this morning feeling exhausted.

After a session today with my coach I realized something interesting.

My tiredness is not necessarily due to lack of sleep.

It’s coming from a feeling of being completely overwhelmed and disorganized.

Looking around my house, blog and business I see work to be done. Every time I open my eyes, I see a mile long list of projects staring back at me. This week it has made me want to crawl back into bed and take a nice long nap.

Another contributing factor is that even though I’ve ramped up the number of hours I’m working, I’m yet to see the desired results from the extra workload, which adds a layer of frustration over my feelings of overwhelm.

Frustration and overwhelm – hardly an energizing combination!

After speaking to my coach, I realized there are some actions required to get me back on track. These might help if like me, you are feeling tired and need to feel less overwhelmed and more organized.

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Go for the quick wins

What I need right now are momentum and energy.

The easiest way to achieve both of these – getting some quick wins under my belt. 

Choose a few quick wins from your to-do list and get them completed.

Use this positive energy to kick-start and sustain your motivation and keep you moving forward.

Related content – 

• 5 Reasons to Take Charge of the Clutter in Your Office
• 10 Ways to Have More Energy

Get clarity on what needs to be done

I have avoided writing to-do lists lately.

I thought having a massive to-do list (or two) would overwhelm me. As it turns out NOT having a list has been more draining.

This weekend I’ll be taking one of my large stick on the wall Post-It notes and writing down everything I need to get done over the weekend. I’ll be placing it up on the wall right next to my laptop where I can’t possibly avoid it.

Over the weekend I will be systematically working through this list, crossing them off with delight as I go.

Of course, to-do lists aren’t that much help unless you have clarity on your big goals and what you want to achieve. You need to have a WHY for doing the work in the first place.

Set up structures that support you

When I worked as a Personal Assistant I relied heavily on Microsoft Outlook for my time management and planning.  In that particular environment, it proved effective.

I have noticed however that this method of time management is not supporting my needs as a blogger. More to the point, I don’t think I’m using the tool correctly for my current situation.

I will give you an example. In my PA role blocking out 3 hours in my calendar to transcribe minutes worked. There was only one task involved in getting the minutes completed.

With blogging, there is a wide range of tasks that I need to do each week.

After trying to work out the best system for me, I’ve discovered that it helps to have a particular day allocated for certain tasks. For instance, one day is dedicated to nothing but writing, while another one is for all things email related.

Each day has a central theme.

I also tend to block mornings for one task and afternoons for something else (while still staying within the same theme).

Then I use my weekly goal list and my daily to-do list to get down to the specifics.

If I try to put everything I need to do in my calendar individually it just ends up a jumbled, confusing mess.

Getting up each morning and having a clear picture of what I need to focus on will definitely help with feelings of overwhelm.

Related post – Should You Keep Your Goals to Yourself?

Clear the clutter

If it was simply overwhelming from a writing perspective I would be coping much better. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

My house is a mess and it is affecting my productivity. 

Putting things aside so that you can focus on your priorities (writing in my case) is not a bad thing until there comes a point when you look around and all you see is piles of stuff.

Clothes not washed, papers scattered all over your office (you get the general untidy picture!)

For some reason yesterday that pile of washing didn’t bother me. Today feeling overwhelmed and tired, it’s all that I can see.

My plan is to set aside 3 hours tomorrow morning to have a whirl-wind cleaning and tidying marathon.

If I don’t schedule in this time, I can pretty much guarantee my writing productivity over the weekend will nose dive.

Clear the clutter and then get on with the job at hand.

Sometimes it’s not extra sleep we need but to be more organized. Get yourself organized, kick overwhelm to the curb and get the job done. Then take a power nap, you deserve it. 🙂 

Please share this post with your friends on social media, you never know who might need some inspiration today!

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