Feeling Frazzled? Of Course You Are!

Here are a few ways to dial down the busy-ness

We just weren’t built to cope with so much information hitting us each day.

And it’s not just modern tech such as screens that’s keeping our brains on high alert.

It takes a huge subconscious effort just to process the countless numbers of faces we see whenever we leave our homes.

For thousands of years we lived in small tribes.

We recognised and knew all the people in our local vicinity.

Modern city living is very different.

We can see hundreds or even thousands of faces every day.

We’re constantly scanning for familiar faces, or for expressions that tell us these are people that we need to acknowledge - or avoid.

And that’s on top of just getting through our day-to-day stuff - commuting to work, grinding through the schedule, sorting lunch, tying up all the loose ends to leave the office at a reasonable time - then the journey home, through throngs of people all trying to do the same thing.

It sounds exhausting - because it is!

Here are a few ways to dial down the busy-ness:

Say “no” more often.

Of course it’s nice to help out our co-workers when we can - but we can’t do their jobs for them.

An unreasonable request for your time when you are already busy is a burden you can do without.

If the “request” comes from a boss, it’s ok to say “I can do that, but only if I sideline this other thing” - let them pick the more important use of your limited time.

Master the art of “Smart Brevity” - conciseness is a skill you can learn and it’s definitely a timesaver.  It takes a little time to learn but (just like stacking a new dishwasher), once you’ve gone through the process a few times, it pays you back handsomely.

For your morning commute - leave a little earlier than strictly necessary.

Yes, this means getting up a bit earlier in the morning - this is the best time saver of all.

Get. Up. Early.

Use any spare time at your destination for a little breather or extra prep time before the working day starts.

Sometimes delaying the start of the journey home doesn’t make that much difference to the time of actually getting home, if the traffic has cleared a bit.  A bit of time decompressing before the journey home can release a lot of tension.  Or alternatively, if you’ve managed an early start in the morning by avoiding the rush and arrived at work well ahead of schedule, you can often justify an early finish - which again, might spare you from the worst of the rush hour.  It’s worth playing with.

Prioritise what you need to know and look out specifically for what you want to know.  Don’t be a passive consumer of doom and gloom from the headlines that are broadcast on the hour.

Choose to avoid the news - if there are any world changing events, you will hear about them - someone will fill you in!

You don’t need to know everything that’s going on in the world.  Being a cynic for just a moment - first of all, you can’t know everything! and second of all, you’re still just finding out what that particular broadcaster wants to tell you  - or that particular newspaper, or commentator.  However much information you consume, you will still be missing someone’s (possibly highly informed but maybe contrarian) viewpoint.

You can only be as well informed as the sources that you choose.

Choose wisely! (and widely, from a variety of opinions, to avoid a siloed viewpoint).

A significant way to protect your brain or at least your psyche, is to try to adopt this idea:  you don’t have to have an opinion on everything.

You can take the mental viewpoint “isn’t that interesting!” without having to choose where you stand on a particular issue.  And if pressed, it’s often most honest to say - “I have a knee-jerk feeling about this, but I just don’t know enough about it to debate it with you.”

Trying to hark back to our early ancestry, when we knew nothing of the world beyond our tribe, tying to understand and deal with stuff relating only to people you have personal contact with saves a huge amount of brainpower.

You can’t do much to influence what’s happening around the globe, but you can choose how you deal with everyone you meet today - you can smile at them, you can be pleasant with them, you can be encouraging, you can lend a helping hand.

If you want to get involved in politics, (if it’s your career) that’s a different matter but in general, we’re most effective when our efforts are directed towards the people that we meet on an individual basis.

It’s not possible to help everyone, but we can be kind to the people we meet personally and that makes for a clear conscience and a good night’s sleep.