How to deal with complete overwhelm as a Mum

This post is Day 1 on my mini-series “From surviving to thriving in Motherhood”.  Why the mini series? Because I’m celebrating the fact that my course VIVE – 21 lessons to ditch the overwhelm, reconnect and truly enjoy motherhood is open again for earlybird enrolment.  Check it out here. 

We all come to points of complete overwhelm as Mums. It’s totally normal.  If you get stuck there for too long though it starts to impact how you feel about being a Mum.

‘UGH!’ you might think as your eyes crack open at 5am. ‘I’ve got to do it alllllllll over again.’

You might find yourself anxiously flitting from job to job, not ever really finishing any of them.

Perhaps you’ve started feeling down on yourself as a person because you just can’t seem to keep up with it all.

In today’s video I’m sharing my tips for avoiding overwhelm as a Mum.  If you have tips of your own I’d love if you’d share them with us in the comments. Watch the video below or read on if you’ve got a babe asleep in your arms. 😉

How to deal with complete overwhelm as a Mum

Make sure you get time for you EVERY day.

Some days it might be as little as ten minutes to yourself but this needs to happen daily. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to this one, and always seem to prioritise other things, but it seriously helps to keep the overwhelm at bay.

Make a master list of all the things swirling in your head.

If you’re feeling like it’s all too much, take the time to write out all the things that you think you need to do. Then categorise them (colour code if you’re into that) into essential things you have to do / things you want to do / one day things. It’s often amazing to see that so much of what we think is essential is actually only a one day thing.

Stop multi-tasking.

If you haven’t already, it really is time to admit that multi-tasking makes you less productive, rather than more productive. It makes you stressed and often you don’t do anything well because you’re always half-distracted and it certainly doesn’t feel good, does it?

Eat that frog.

Inspired by Brian Tracey’s book by the same name this idea is super simple, but so effective.  Do the thing you want to do the least – first. It helps you to feel more productive and often gets the ball rolling for more, rather than feeling like it’s all too much.

Talk to someone.

Share that you’re feeling overwhelmed. Vent about it over tea (or wine) with your best-mama-friend. Sometimes this is enough to make you feel better.

Play and get outside.

Get outside for some play of your own.  This doesn’t necessarily mean running around after your kids (unless that is something you enjoy) but could mean reading a book in the sunshine, going on a picnic with friends – anything you enjoy that is not confined to the four walls of your house (which I suspect send us all a little crazy).

Disconnect.

The internet is overwhelming. The end. Turn it off (after you finish this reading this post of course) do something else instead.

Create systems and routines around the hard stuff.

Laundry used to do my head in. It never ends. I never get ‘on top’ of it. And I actually really despised doing it. Until I created systems around what days I wash and having baskets for every family member, so sorting happens straight off the line.  I also now always listen to podcasts while I do it.  I wouldn’t go as far as saying I love it – but I certainly don’t hate it as much as I used to.