How to manage workload anxiety

You just finished a big project this week and as you walked away from your desk on Friday, the relief was palpable. It felt so good to get it done and in the end, the work just flowed. 

Now, Monday is here and the pressure is back. Five more projects are sitting on your list, all with an urgent need and your mind is running a soundtrack of “I still have so much to do” on repeat. 

The pressure is real. 

When you aren’t working on one, you are thinking about it. When you are working on one, you are worrying about another. And at some point, you just get so exhausted that you end up doing nothing in hopes you can get the pressure just to release a little. All your energy is spent thinking about doing, worrying about doing, and there is little left for actual doing.

So why is your brain making it such a bad thing to have things to do?

All of this thinking is an act of resistance. If you have things on your calendar, trust that you will get them done in their allotted time, and aren’t worried about what will happen if you are late, do less than stellar work or miss something entirely, then all of this doing would simply be clear headed focus and determination. 

But it’s clearly not.

Because your mind is living in an irrational state of fear that says “I might miss something” or “I might not get it done”. You believe in this future devastation that says somehow, this is going to be bad and it’s sucking up all your energy. 

Isn’t having a constant list of things to do the nature of the beast for sustainable growth?

Anything else is idle. And you are anything but idle. You make things happen in your life.

So why are you so resistant?

It’s as if there is some unknown destination of peace and tranquility with a nonexistent to-do list that you are striving to reach. 

The reality is, if you found that place, you’d be bored out of your mind after a day or two, maybe a week tops. 

Also, you keep telling yourself that you have so much to do, but didn’t you create the list?

There might be one or two things on there that feel pretty much like an obligation, maybe they even have legal ties to them, but thousands of people are proof that even those requirements are questionable. 

You create the list based on how you choose to exist in life. 

So a more powerful way of thinking might be:

I choose to create x, y and z this week.

I am capable of churning out significant amounts of work without depleting myself because I keep my mind clear and just focus on what’s in front of me.

I trust myself to get my work done within the timeframe I’ve scheduled it in. 

So when your brain serves up pressure. I want you to remind yourself that you don’t have to believe it. You can choose one of these powerful thoughts instead.

Now let’s get to work.