The Impact of Overwhelm

This is possibly one of the simplest models that I want to share with people, and at the same time one of the most important and most impactful.? ?

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I want to consider the effects of overwhelm, both single event overwhelm and creeping, incremental overwhelm.?

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Starting with the single event scenario let’s say we have a base overwhelm level of 50.? (no, there isn't a metric for overwhelm, I made it up, but bear with me). ??

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We’re busy, stretched at times, but we can generally cope with whatever life has to throw at us.? Then we hit an issue that spikes our overwhelm, perhaps takes us up by 30 points so our level is now at 80.? That’s high, we’re under pressure and we might have to challenge ourselves, but we can still cope.? When that event has passed, we might have a dip while we recover and reset, and then we get back to our base level.?

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Overall this is fine, and there’s even research that suggests issues like this are good for us.? They test our mettle, challenges us to step out of our comfort zone, and build our resilience.? I have plenty of tools to help deal with this and it’s not the form of overwhelm that concerns me.?

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What does concern me greatly is creeping overwhelm.? This is where we maybe start at the same level of 50 and then something happens to take us up a notch.? But instead of coming back down we just level out at this new base level.? This happens again and again, and before we know it our base level is up to 80 or higher.? Then we get hit with that big 30 point issue and it tips us over the top.? ?

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We’re paralysed by overwhelm, we can’t cope, and we crash.? Our immune system gets compromised (remember the model we looked at?and the physiology of overwhelm) and it can have a significant impact on our health, both physically and mentally.?

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This is the kind of overwhelm that drives me as I want to support people to avoid it.? Much of my work is focused on productivity and effectiveness.? These are tools to help us stay (and feel) in control of our work and avoid work controlling us.? There are some amazing wellness practitioners out there and I can’t do what they do, but I can provide practical tools to help keep overwhelm at bay.???

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When I worked in project management and business development I saw productivity as structure, lists and Gantt charts.? Now I see it as a tool to support physical and mental wellbeing (as well as getting stuff done!).?

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As I said at the outset, this is a very simple model.? Use it to evaluate where you are in relation to overwhelm, and help others do the same, especially if you think they are ratcheting up.? ?

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If things are at a level that you’re not comfortable with, take a step back to give yourself some perspective, and evaluate the options that might work for you.? It’s likely to be a mix between support for your personal wellbeing, and practical tools to get work and demands under control.???

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All the best?

Dave?

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