Tips for the People Who Just Do Too Much

Listen, some of us are the kings and queens of overloading our mental capacity. We work full-time, some of us go to college, we have significant others, and let's be honest, everyone wants just a little bit of a social life. When you work way too hard and overload yourself, things get jumbled, you fall behind and you panic. Rinse and repeat. Thankfully, people like myself thrive on order, and there's a system—yes, a system, to help the people who do way too much.

1.) Pace yourself.

This one is super important (hence why it's number one). Lots of times we think about all the things we have to do by what deadline and then you're faced with a rolling blackout in your mind. To avoid burning your mind out early on, take a breather, tell yourself how many tasks you'll do today (the answer is not all of them, by the way).

2.) Prioritize in writing.

Make a list. Honestly, I'm serious. In a day and age of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the plethora of organize-capable tools, the most helpful thing you have at your disposal is a pen and paper. Write out all of your deadlines, and then organize your tasks by what is due first. Have a bill due in three days? Have to have a homework done for school in two weeks? Pay that bill first. It takes maybe 20 minutes, and it crosses something off your list. Work your way down by due dates (but make sure you give yourself time to finish everything!).

3.) Take a break.

I promise you, nothing is going to get accomplished when it's midnight and you're on the eighth page of a ten-page-paper that you've been working on for five hours, and you're sick of hearing your own voice. At that point, whatever you write, you'll probably delete tomorrow. When you hit this nasty standstill, the best thing to help you stay on track, and keep yourself organized is to rest. Watch a film, take a bath/shower, or look at memes (if that's what you like). Accomplishing tasks goes right back to the person working on them. If you're exhausted and barely dragging along, you won't accomplish much. Take care of yourself, nourish your mind and body.

4.) Come up with a plan.

This one is for everyone who stresses about finances like I do. I mean, of course, I make enough money to cover my bills, but at the end of the month, I stress out because I feel like I barely put anything away all month! If you feel this way, come up with a financial plan. At the beginning of the month, set aside your bill money, or set aside a percentage of your paycheck for bills. Once those are covered, take a percentage of your check to put away into your savings. Take a look at where your savings account balance was at the beginning of the month, and keep putting money away. This establishes an emergency fund for you, and also shows you where your money is going, and that helps with financial stress.

5.) Don't sweat the small stuff.

Yeah, yeah. How cliche. This one is also super important, though. When we do so much in our daily lives, we also tend to overthink every single teeny tiny inconvenience. The key is, in this situation, is the 5-5 rule, as I like to call it. Will your boss be yelling at you, or that test you got a "D" on, or the fact that you forgot to email your professor about the next class matter in five months? If the answer is no, in whatever situation you're in, then don't spend more than five minutes worrying about it.

6.) Ask for help.

Who do you turn to for advice when things start to crumble? Find that person, and ask them to help you. When you try and hold up your entire workload on your own, it can look like that picture of a stereotypical college kid who's surrounded by stacks of books and papers. You know which one I'm talking about. ask your "person" to sit down with you and help you organize all your tasks and get a second opinion. Sometimes our opinions of priority can get pretty jaded from stress. Ask your person what they think and talk to them and work with them to organize your workload rationally and sensibly. You might find their plan is better than yours.

7.) Give yourself ample time and set alarms.

Procrastination is the devil's greatest curse on the world. Nothing is more stressful than putting off a task until the day before it's due and then scrambling to get SOMETHING on the page. Space these tasks out from the day you learn of them. Set mini-deadlines. Set alarms for these mini-deadlines. For example, if you would like to have an outline for a task completed by say June 8th, set an alarm reminding you to work on it on June 5th. Follow me? Space pieces of your task out, this way you aren't doing the entire thing at once, and it saves you some time and stress in the end. Follow this, and if you do happen to procrastinate a little in the end, you'll have some of your task done.

Everyone is different; everyone has different needs and different paces. These tips, however, are just the basics to try and provide some solace for the go-getters of this world. Do what makes you happy, take a deep breath, and above all take care of yourself over everything.