We often toss around the phrase “busy as a bee” as though it’s a mark of something important. There are times when slowing down can have it’s advantages though. If we spend all of our time being busy, we risk hitting burnout and overwhelm. Today, I’m bringing you a quick update on life and some of the things I do to avoid overwhelm when life gets to busy and the moments seem to slip away.
Sometimes you need to give yourself permission to not finish your to do list. Sometimes, that’s the best thing you can do to avoid burnout and overwhelm. This is what I did this past weekend when life got incredibly busy as we prepared for our first long trip with Baby Fox. A fourteen hour long trip to be exact. We’ve taken him a lot of places and done a lot of things with him, but we’ve never gone further than two hours away. With family scattered all around (hello military lifestyle), long trips are inevitable. They can also be incredibly overwhelming at times as you make sure everything goes the way you want. (Not to mention the packing, sitting in a car, and visiting large amounts of people.)
One of my biggest goals with my 31 Days of Simple is to reduce stress and overwhelm in my life. This weekend presented the perfect opportunity. I spent most of Saturday doing a booth at a Mom 2 Mom sale and the rest of it packing for our trip (which is way different with a baby). Saturday evening rolled around and I thought about sitting down to work on my online to do list. When I thought about it, I got slightly overwhelmed and decided that everything would be waiting for me later. Yesterday was spent riding in our minivan all day long, so it was another break from my usual daily to do list.
I don’t regret taking the break one bit. The internet didn’t break and I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. Instead, I feel as though I gained some time to focus on my many projects and to narrow down where my focus should be for the rest of the year. I feel less scattered and ready to tackle some of the projects I’ve been putting off.
I love being busy and in many ways, I thrive on being busy. In fact, I often get more done when I’m busy and limited on time. However, I’ve also discovered the benefits of slowing down and recharging over the years. Giving yourself grace and allowing yourself to take a break is the best way I’ve found to avoid overwhelm.
Taking a break this weekend meant not writing two of my posts for the 31 Days of Simple. I thought about leaving it at 29 days and moving forward from there but that just didn’t feel satisfying. So, instead I’ll be writing two extra posts sometime during the month or early November so that there are still 31 posts for this topic. It’s a topic that’s really important to me. My goal is to eventually link all of the posts in one big round-up to make them easier to find.
How do you beat the overwhelm when it creeps up on you?
