Being 'busy' has become a social norm in these fast-paced times, to the extent that people use this word freely and consistently to either express their hectic nature of life or to project their 'busyness' as a status symbol in Malawi. The problem has assumed such exponential proportions that you're considered lazy, unenthusiastic, or coming from the stone age if you don't come across as busy. Unfortunately, this mindset is increasingly prevalent in the corporate and entrepreneurial world.
However, this pattern of conformist behavior contributes to one of the biggest problems of the century – 'overwhelm.'
What does the word 'Overwhelmed' actually mean?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary: "If something overwhelms someone or something, it is too much, or almost too much, for them to manage."
"Too much to manage" – are the keywords here.
When the situation becomes that hard to manage, it easily creates a ripple effect on your psychological and emotional response. Eventually, it can increase stress, anxiety, fears, health issues, and even financial losses.
Overwhelm to Burnout
If the overwhelm becomes consistent, it can make you feel emotionally drained and then quickly lead you into the stage called 'burnout'.
The key effects of burnout include - reduced productivity, and mental and physical fatigue, apart from feelings of cynicism and resentment.
According to an HBR research report: "The entrepreneurs, on average, said they experienced some level of burnout. But some were more burned out than others — 25% of entrepreneurs felt moderately burned out, while 3% felt strongly burned out."
It continues to add: "The researchers found that the entrepreneurs who reported high scores of obsessive passion were more likely to say they experienced burnout than those who reported high scores of harmonious passion." This is a strong indicator that you need to identify this challenge at the stage of 'overwhelm' to avoid the stage of 'burnout'.
Otherwise, it will soon seep into other areas of your life, including your relationships.
However, as a busy entrepreneur or professional, it's easy to feel overwhelmed due to all the distractions and notifications constantly vying for your attention. These distractions include - email alerts and message notifications and the never-ending demands from your social media presence - Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, and others. Above all, there's the news overflow from the thousands of TV channels and the massive array of entertainment options on OTT platforms.
The harmful impact of information overload
It's consistently damaging your focus. Our brain is not equipped to deal with the information overload from an ever-increasing number of sources, especially technology-related ones, that are consistently trying to attract our attention. When we are feeling overwhelmed, we have difficulty sitting still. Our thinking gets clouded. Our ability to make decisions becomes weaker, and our memory is impacted. This can result in a loss of mental energy and strength required to concentrate on the tasks at hand.
Your ability to focus starts to get diluted and weaker. Being able to stay focused on a set of tasks is one of the greatest indicators of your future success. Successful and mindful entrepreneurs and professionals make it a point to master the art of laser focus because that gives them strong and fulfilling outcomes.
The antidote
Now you'd think the problem can be easily resolved if you acted rationally and removed all the harmful distractions that are the source of overwhelm so you can regain your focus. But, the pattern of acting with an 'obsessive passion' hijacks the 'rational' part of our thinking, making it more complicated. There is a deeper issue here that we need to address.
While learning to improve your focus in the face of all the distractions and overcome overwhelm doesn't happen overnight, there are strategies to make it easier. With a few simple Mindfulness practices, you can quickly take charge of your mind, stop overwhelm in its tracks and develop laser-like focus.
1. Avoid multitasking
Imagine this – you're working on a project when your phone rings suddenly. It's your partner calling who needs you to be back home a bit earlier that night due to an emergency. You hear a notification beep from one of your clients with an urgent query as you finish the call. You head over to Facebook to address this task, and half an hour later, you find yourself surfing social media and checking up on other messages.
When you finally bring your attention back to your project work, you realize you had lost the same clear focus you had earlier when you started working on it. It's important to remember that consistent multitasking often can lead to a downfall in the brain's gray matter and, eventually, memory problems. So it's not surprising that this can prevent you from focusing on one project at a time to complete it.
So, here's what you need to do to avoid multitasking:
- Never check your phone first thing when you wake up in the morning, as it can get you started on a multitasking mode and decrease your productivity. Wait at least an hour after you've completed some of your other morning priorities.
- Make an effort to eliminate all pointless distractions when focussing on project completion. The best way to do this is to switch off your social media, text, and email notifications or put your phone on airplane mode. You can turn them back on again after the task completion.
- Learn to say 'No' even when you get the opportunity for more projects than you can suitably handle. This will help you design a pattern for delivering high-quality work while reducing your multitasking madness.
2. Practice Mindfulness meditation
Whether in the form of meditation or breathing exercises, integrating mindfulness into your routine will help you with your goal of overcoming overwhelm. It has been proven to enhance focus, improving optimism, happiness, positive emotional states, and self-acceptance. Psychologist Daniel Goleman says: "Bringing attention back to the breath each time you feel your mind wandering during meditation helps strengthen the brain's neural circuitry for focus."
Essentially, when you notice that you're off track due to any distraction, like a text or your phone ringing, you will be better equipped to return to the task at hand. Whenever you find your focus decline during a day's work, this simple step of a quick and short meditation will help you restore your attention and focus.
3. Consume mindfully
Research shows that mindful eating and choosing your nutrition mindfully can help with greater psychological well-being, which directly impacts your brain's power of focus. Our gut and brain are connected with one of the biggest nerves called the 'vagus'. This means that the health of our gut impacts our brain's cognitive functioning.
According to the Harvard School of Public Health: "Mindfulness targets becoming more aware of, rather than reacting to, one's situation and choices. Eating mindfully means using all of your physical and emotional senses to experience and enjoy the food choices you make." The keys to the mindful eating model rest on four pillars: what, why, how much, and how to eat. So, make use of the power of mindfulness to:
- Notice internal and external signals that affect how much you eat
- Observe how the food looks, smells, feels, and tastes
- Become aware of how your body feels after eating
In terms of the 'How' – you can use mindful breathing techniques before or after the meal. Also, your brain needs lots of good fat to function properly. So, try to get more 'good fats' in your diet. Nuts, avocados, and coconut oil are all great examples.
These steps will quickly improve your cognitive function and, thereby your focus.
4. Master your sleep
Consistent sleep deprivation can potentially ruin your focus.
It's a simple equation: poor sleep = overworked neurons.
Research from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School suggests:
"A sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently. In addition, sleep itself has a role in memory consolidation, which is essential for learning new information." Furthermore, a lack of sufficient sleep or low-quality sleep can result in a loss of ability to make correct decisions due to a loss of assessment accuracy and judgment impairment.
Above all, experiencing chronic fatigue or exhaustion affects our performance and efficiency. At the same time, research also suggests that both situations - too little sleep or too much sleep – can result in cognitive decline. So, what's recommended is accomplishing a routine of 'optimal' sleep.
Here are a few quick tips:
- Optimize your bedroom environment by minimizing the use of electronic devices in the room, especially before bedtime.
- Create a regular sleep schedule to support your body clock.
- Avoid alcohol or caffeine after a certain time in the evening.
- Adopt a relaxing routine before bed – you can try reading, enjoying a warm bath, or mindfulness meditation. Apart from slowing down your overactive brain, this will also activate your pineal gland, which supports the production of the sleep hormone melatonin.'
- The amount of sleep needed varies significantly across individuals. While there's no 'magic number of hours, become mindful of your own unique needs and follow that routine.
5. Stay physically active
While we all know how beneficial 'working out is for your body, several research studies have revealed that regular physical exercise can help build the brain to manage distractions better and improve its ability to focus. Physical activity of any kind helps boost the 'good' chemicals in the brain - dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. All of this supports improving your focus and concentration scale.
So, there's no excuse not to make physical activity a regular part of your routine. Start your morning with some form of physical exercise. Or, you can include it in your evening schedule after work, making sure it suits your body type and the current state of your health. The simple routine of getting your blood flowing for 20-30 minutes every day will spark your mind sufficiently and help you develop stronger focus throughout the day. Staying focused is one of the biggest challenges we face today. But, unfortunately, it's not only because we have forgotten how to stay focused but also because we've far more distractions than ever.
When you learn and manage to stay focused on your goals and the tasks at hand, you can become unstoppable! Here's what Steve Jobs had to say about focus:
"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Of course, simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it because once you get there, you can move mountains."
