Feeling overwhelmed about the fast-approaching EOY? Here's how to manage it

Anyone else feeling like December crept up on us?

Like last year, our year-end runway was cut short. We prioritised the long-awaited family visits, team reunifications, haircuts. That’s important to do.

Still, the regular target-hitting, event planning, and gift buying tasks remain, and juggling work responsibilities on a condensed timeline is often overwhelming.

So how will you tackle your literal or enigmatic to-do list, fit it all in your calendar, and fend off burnout?

Mental overload

Research has well-established that our mental bandwidth is finite. The cognitive resources you have to pay attention to, process and remember tasks is limited. Only by forgetting something can you make room for the new task you’d like to remember — a process we’d like to have some control over! Meanwhile, factors like stress and fatigue can limit your capacity before you even get started.

All of this means we need a mental space saver.

David Allen’s well-regarded Getting Things Done (GTD) system combines Zen Bhuddism principles with organisational discipline to help its followers achieve “mind like water”. While implementing the system in full is not a quick December-friendly solution, its principles can be applied simply and quickly to create the mental space important for both focus and mental recovery.

Five steps

Capture whatever has your attention using a tool of choice — paper/digital list/app/etc (don’t get stuck for hours researching the best tool; that’s a February job).
Clarify what it means. What’s the next action required? Being granular and specific combats overwhelm.
Organise the stuff into groups of your choice, so you know where to find what needs to be actioned, followed-up, referenced and so forth.
Reflect on your groups of stuff at a regular frequency to make sure they’re still complete and accurate. Set a reminder so you know your next review will happen.
Engage with those next actions (get the stuff done).

Even a quick, mini-GTD attempt can really lift the weight of overwhelm by making your next steps concrete. Trusting in a system like this means it’s safe to clear tasks (and associated worries) from your attention. You’ll free up mental bandwidth to focus on the task at hand, and perform it more effectively.

But now you’ve got to actually get all of this stuff done. And getting stuff done takes time, so you need to make sure you have a schedule. So how do you find space in your calendar?

Calendar overload

Even when it feels like time demands triple, time is still finite, so something’s got to give.

‘Tis the season to prioritise ruthlessly. Ideally, you intentionally swap low-value activities for high-value, rather than letting chance determining which item is squeezed out of the schedule.

Here’s how:

Create space in your calendar. How necessary is that meeting? Is that deadline flexible? What could be completed asynchronously? Could shifting your workday earlier or later provide a quiet window?
Identify the tasks that will pay off the most. Generously estimate the time required for the next action, and block out that time in your calendar. Guard that time with your life, signaling to others that you need to focus.
Block out an overflow hour in the afternoon for drop-ins, urgent tasks and to buffer your not-generous-enough time estimates. Only fill that overflow block when the day arrives.

Like your mental-space management system, trust in your schedule is what enables you to execute intentionally. Saving that overflow hour means you’re less likely to be tempted to be distracted from you high-value task blocks, knowing you’ll be available to support staff or respond to emails later.

Looking after yourself

You’ve probably experienced years where you’ve pushed yourself too hard to get through December. Don’t fool yourself: the climb is likely to be steeper this year. But approaching the period with intention and self-preservation will help fend off burnout.

Take a moment to reflect on the activities that really help you feel relaxed, restored and cared for. These don’t have to take up a lot of time, but can be dotted through the weeks between now and year-end to keep you sane and balanced. Write a me-time menu to help seize opportunities to recoup.

Perhaps you’ll: