A familiar feeling that everyone has at times is feeling as if we don’t have any control over parts of our lives. Specifically, over our schedule, time, finances, health, and more. You may have so much going on that it’s hard to step back. Peeling yourself out of all the craziness, chaos, to-do’s, or clutter is challenging. However, there are things we do have control over. Until we step back from the chaos, it can be hard to realize that we can control areas of our lives.
There are five super simple things that you can control, starting today. Most of these you probably have yet to even think of. These five things can immediately reduce your overwhelm as you try to manage your home and work simultaneously. Honestly, you can take action on each of these things now.
Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast
Mastering Overwhelm: 5 Easy Ways to Take Charge as a Work-from-Home Mom
Many times, we don’t realize the power we hold within us. You can make your own decisions today and every day. Although you may not realize this, you may feel overwhelmed and helpless when it comes to managing your home and work. This process is about flipping the script and thinking about things differently. Your focus should be on thinking about things in an encouraging, positive, and healthy way. Indeed, putting these five simple things into action is going to reduce your overwhelm immediately.
How to Take Charge of Life’s Chaos and Embrace Control
Feeling like you don’t have things under control is entirely understandable. Your feelings are valid between kids, their messes, multiple schedules, and other people who need us. In reality, beyond our feelings, we do have the ability to control almost everything.
Many of us have experiences in our past that were traumatic or hard. We all go through good and bad things. So much of our experiences can be in our control. Specifically, how we respond, the decisions we make, how we take action, and how we don’t take action. Taking things you can control into your motherhood, leadership, companionship, and partnerships can be life-changing.
“Taking things you can control into your motherhood, leadership, companionship, and partnerships can be life-changing. “
Things You Can Control #1: Your Environment
Let’s shed light on the things you can control to achieve balance and serenity in your home. Number one is the amount of exposure to stimulation that causes overwhelm. Personally, I believe that we don’t actually have control over other people. So, no, we don’t have complete control over our children; we can only parent in a specific way. The only thing we do have control over is ourselves.
The Art of Tidying Up for a Clutter-Free Life
You can help stop overstimulation by putting away your things as soon as you are done with them. You do have control over how messy or tidy you are. Yes, even if your husband and kids aren’t tidy.
For example, putting away your toothbrush every single time you use it. After brushing your hair, right away, place the hairbrush back in its home. Make your bed every single time you wake up in the morning. Put your clothes in the dirty hamper. Wash your plate. Place the remote back in the bin or the basket. All of these things are within your control.
To start, this will reduce the amount of junk lying around your house. Additionally, it’s going to set an incredible example for everyone else. Maybe you’ve already been doing this for decades. It doesn’t matter. There is always room for improvement. Improvement is something you can always focus on.
How a Fresh Perspective Redefines Freedom
Focusing on your growth will bring you much more freedom in your life, even when you feel rigid with your rules. By the time you start cooking dinner, your whole house will be back to normal. Well, most of the time. There are always those days that have exceptions. Remember to give yourself grace. Controlling your actions and choosing to pick up after yourself will help you significantly decrease overstimulation.
Things You Can Control #2: Your Positivity
Your attitude and your perception most definitely make the list of things you can control. It would help if you flipped the script to rewire your brain to change the negatives to positives. So much takes place in our day that we perceive as negative. Taking that negativity and immediately flipping it into positivity puts you in control.
So, when you look at your child and think about something they didn’t do around the house, the thought is negative, and you switch it to a positive. For example, my oldest is a lot like me. She’s very detail-oriented, specific, hypersensitive, and notices everything. Also extremely systematic and super organized. This can often come across as overbearing, restrictive, or not open, especially to her younger sister. I so want to tell my youngest sometimes to knock it off and stop being negative.
Rewiring Your Mind: The Magic of Flipping the Script
So, how does flipping the script help the overwhelm? If you begin flipping the negative, you will rid the negativity within you. This will immediately reduce overwhelm, instantly and immediately. Your own thoughts are happening internally. So, the fruit of changing your internal thoughts is being able to do more.
When I flip the script with my oldest, I comment positively instead of harping on the negative. For example, “I love how you’re taking the time to build Play-Doh or a Lego house in a specific and creative way. I love your ideas. Let’s make sure we share our Play-Doh or Lego house with other people too.” With this conversation, they know their ideas are important and necessary too. This sets the model for her and allows her to allow her little sister to be involved. We can remove so much from our plates when we model the behavior early on.
Breaking the Cycle: How to Stop the Spiral of Negative Self-Talk
Taking negative self-talk and immediately flipping it is the key to mastering positivity. So many times, one negative thought can spiral in our minds. Something as simple as throwing out a pound of chicken can spiral your thoughts. You start to think, “Wow, that was super expensive, really expensive.” Then the next negative thought hits your mind, then the next, and so on. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps you from being productive. Negativity adds to the overwhelm, and it’s constant and chronic. Instead of worrying about the chicken, I think about all the good things we did do with food. Like how much healthy food we did cook and eat. These are things we can control over and over again. Simple things we can do right now.
Thing You Can Control #3: One Touch Method
So much of what overwhelms us throughout the day is caused by our own lack of care. You can control this by using the one-touch method. Anytime something comes into your hand or your responsibility, you touch it once. If you pick it up, know that you’re picking it up because you will put it away. Please don’t put it down somewhere else and then leave it for yourself to do later.
The one-touch method works the same way digitally. If you open an email, be ready to respond. Same thing with the text messages you are responding to. Additionally, this works for commitments too. Only commit to something for someone if you can do it. No, back and forth with “maybes” or “Oh, I’ll get back to you and let you know.” Commit once, get it done, pick it up, start, and finish it. Obviously, things can’t be done like that, but we are talking about the little things that we tend to kick further down the road. This builds a bank of things logged into your mind that still need to be finished. Things you need to do on top of all the new things we log daily add to the overwhelm.
Things You Can Control #4: Your Schedule
Working from home is all about balance. You are balancing the household tasks and inserting your work throughout the day. It can feel chaotic, but when you take the things you can control and manage them, your day will feel much lighter. Setting appointments for only certain days of the week can help with this. You have complete control over your schedule. Maybe, you have to show up for work at a particular time, and your kids must go to school at a specific time. But, everything else outside of that you actually have control over.
You can choose to only make appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays or reserve Fridays only for appointments. Batching appointments to certain days will ultimately free up other days in your week. As moms, there are so many appointments to keep up with. There are doctor’s appointments, dentist appointments, tax appointments, appointments for your kids, and so much more. Honestly, setting a specific day of the week will be the habit of setting boundaries within your schedule and time.
Things You Can Control #5: Your Time on Social Apps
Okay, hear me out. This one is my favorite thing you can control. Really, it is. Deleting your social apps is a fantastic way to reduce your overwhelm. Delete, delete, delete! Honestly, I just went through this, and mine are entirely deleted right now.
I still check my socials but only do it on my computer during my work block. When I started my podcast, I talked about doing this. Then, I thought I had outgrown and outsmarted the addictive algorithms and never deleted them. My boundaries are fierce, and my willpower is super strong, but that doesn’t matter. We are all so susceptible to the addictive design built into our cell phones.
Think about your morning routine. Do you check your socials? We feel like we are just checking in and hopping off, but those minutes add up. Additionally, what you’re exposing yourself to is shaping your thoughts, and you don’t even know it. Removing your socials can eliminate this. Now, social is likely how you connect with people, your business, or shop. Honestly, it is easy to be obsessed with social. However, there has to be a time when you disconnect from it completely.
Unlocking Empowerment with a Digital Detox
Figure out how many days a week you can delete your social apps. Don’t worry; you can always download it again. But, it is just a big enough hassle that you won’t want to do it when sitting in the waiting room or the car line. Nothing is ever truly deleted; your apps can always come back to life. Empowering yourself to get rid of the overwhelm and embracing the things you can control can help you gain a stronghold in your life again. Out of all the things you can control, if you don’t do any, at least do number five.
So, take a break from reading and delete your social apps right now. All of them, even Pinterest. When my brain needs something to fill the nanoseconds, sit down and read, study, sing, do extra sit-ups, or whatever you like to do.
Recap: 5 Simple Things You Can Control
Let’s recap the essentials. Understanding these five things you can control and taking action on them will help you crush your overwhelm:
- Put your things away as soon as you’re done.
- Flip the script and change your negatives into positives.
- Use the one-touch method to stay productive and organized.
- Only set appointments one or two days a week.
- Delete your social apps from your phone.
Looking for More Tips on How to Master the Overwhelm?
Looking for more help on mastering the overwhelm in your life? Check out this blog on the first step to take when you’re overwhelmed! Want more tips on how to save time and decrease the overwhelm? This blog dives into how to create a command center to save you time and reduce overwhelm.
If you ever need help or want more ideas, don’t be afraid to reach out! Please join our FREE Systemize Your Life Facebook community to connect with others.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I create a routine to decrease my overwhelm?
Yes! Creating a routine is essential to helping you manage your household and work. Grab my free Time Blocking Workbook which is a time-blocking roadmap for work-from-home moms.
