Overcoming overwhelm: 10 mental hacks to get you back on track

In 2010, then Google CEO Eric Schmidt rattled off a statistic that still blows my mind today.

“Every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilisation up until 2003,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said this nearly a decade ago. Imagine how much information exists now, ten years on. No wonder many of us feel overwhelmed from time to time. I know I do.

How do you cope with information overload? It’s kind of like trying to run an iPhone 10 on Windows 95. We’re trying to keep up, but we’re navigating a completely new system.

We have to upgrade our mental operating software. But how?

Throughout the years, I’ve come to realise that feeling overwhelmed is very normal – but staying overwhelmed is optional. You just need the right coping strategies.

With this in mind, here are 10 of my favourite mental hacks for moving out of overwhelm.

1. Breathe

Before we go any further, take a deep breath (trust me on this). Breathe into your belly and slowly exhale. Do you feel a little better already?

It’s incredible how we rush through our days with little regard for our breath – rarely taking a moment to pause and observe the air flowing through our lungs.

We spend so much time in our heads (thinking, always thinking!) and so little time in our bodies. I’m not trying to say that breath-work is the cure-all to all our problems – but it almost always helps. Don’t trust me, trust the science.

2. Reframe negative thoughts

For me, overwhelm always comes with a generous side serving of negative thoughts.

Derek Leddie from Collective Mind My business coach taught me a simple reframing exercise that helps me dial down the negative chatter.

I grab a piece of paper, and on the left side, I write down ten of the negative thoughts I say to myself.

For example:

You have too much on, you should say no.

Don’t do the Harvard Business School speech. No one will turn up.

You don’t have enough time.

You get really bad anxiety when you travel.

Then, on the right side of the piece of paper, I reframe these thoughts to focus on a positive outcome.

Do one thing at a time, and you’ll get through it all.

You will smash the speech.

You have time; just compartmentalise.

You will get anxiety when you travel, but you have the tools to cope, and the anxiety always passes.

I then go a step further; I record these positive reframes on my phone and play them back to myself when I need to.

3. Compartmentalise your life

How often do we stress about work when we’re with family, and about family when we’re at work?

We’re all over the place, trying to be everywhere at once, and exhausting our minds (and our adrenal glands) in the process.

These days, I compartmentalise. I don’t try to ‘blend’ my life. When I’m at home with my family, I focus on my family. When I’m at work, I focus on work. Of course, sometimes thoughts creep in, but I try to bring myself back to the present moment instead of getting lost in thought (my daily mindfulness practices help with this).

Another thing that helps me to compartmentalise is “washing work away” before I say hello to my family in the evenings. I’ll “wash” the work off me by taking a shower or enjoying a few moments of mindfulness before I greet my family. 

4. Lean on your support crew

Turn to your support crew in challenging times – for advice, for a confidence boost, even just for distraction (it’s amazing what a meal with a mate can do for your mood).

My biggest supporter is my wife. She knows me well, she always has my back, and yet she’s not afraid to push me a little and to challenge some of my negative thought patterns. When I’m stuck in overwhelm, she reminds me that we’re a team and I’m not alone – we get through it together.

Find your champion, and lean on them when you need to.

5. Break complex tasks into small goals

Focusing on your big, audacious end goal without creating any steps in between is a fast track to overwhelm-town.

I’m not a fitness expert by any means, but I do know that you don’t go out and run a marathon overnight (not happily, anyway). You prepare for the big day, one training run at a time. 5km here, 15km there. It’s not glamorous, it’s not fast, and some days are rough. But, eventually, you accumulate enough fitness to tick off your big goal.

Start with the end goal in mind, then work your way backwards and break your goal into small, achievable “training runs”. This is much-touted time management advice (I’m not telling you anything new, here!), but there’s a reason it’s so popular. It works.

6.  Create rock-solid boundaries around your time

Often, we know what we need to thrive – plenty of sleep, enough exercise, some quality time with friends and family. What stops us from getting everything we need is a lack of boundaries – we scroll social media when we’re meant to be sleeping, work late when we’re way past being productive, and skip the gym but somehow have time to stop for a sugar-laden treat.

When our boundaries are weak, we don’t live in alignment with our values, and it creates a vicious cycle.

I’m not suggesting we become slaves to our schedules or remove all spontaneity from life, but it is worth putting boundaries in place to protect the things that are most important to you. Sometimes, that means saying no to opportunities instead of saying yes. It’s easier to say no first than to say no later.

7. Get good sleep

Sometimes, overwhelm is exhaustion in disguise. When you’re sleep-deprived, it’s hard to make good decisions and feel “on top of life” (no matter how many cups of coffee you drink).

Try to claw back some sleep – you’ll be amazed at how productive you are when you feel well-rested.

8. Create a power anchor

A power anchor is a positive, meaningful phrase or memory that feels authentic to you and your life’s purpose. You’ll know you’ve found your power anchor when it makes you feel grounded and content.

One of my power anchor phrases is “I love life, I am loved, and I love myself.”

Another power anchor is a meaningful memory – the birth of my children. Find your memory, and when you’re feeling overwhelmed, try to go back to that place in your imagination. If it doesn’t make you feel immediately a bit happier, it’ll at least take the edge off.

9. Practice gratitude to rewire your brain

Gratitude is another buzzword, but it’s the real deal. Harvard tested a daily gratitude practice and found it rewires the brain after ten weeks.

Here’s how my gratitude practice works: every day, I say three things I’m grateful for out loud. That simple.

At home, we also try to have a gratitude dinner once a week. We go around the dinner table and talk about one thing we are grateful for and one thing we can try to improve.

10. Make preventing overwhelm a habit

All of the techniques I’ve outlined here are the most powerful when you do them often, not just every now and then.

Carve out time in your week to reflect on your coping strategies, fine-tune your boundaries, and check in with yourself to see how you’re feeling.

The secret sauce to getting good at anything is consistency. Finding time for some of these coping strategies might be challenging at first, but it’s worth it.

What about you? Do you have a secret sauce?

Let me know in the comments below.