Feeling overwhelmed: what to do when everything piles up

Daniel Gavalec · Updated October 22, 2026

When you feel overwhelmed, pause to list the demands, separate real deadlines from optional work and choose one manageable next action. Renegotiate what will not fit instead of scheduling the whole backlog. The suggested fifteen-minute routine is an example to adapt, not a guaranteed way to reduce distress.

Why you feel like there is too much

A to-do list doesn’t overwhelm you. Carrying it in your head does. Every half-finished task, promise or “I still need to” is an open loop your mind keeps and brings up now and then – at work, in the shower, in bed. With thirty of them, your brain can’t sort them and sends just one message: “It’s too much.”

E. J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister (2011) showed that an unfinished goal keeps nagging people and hurts their focus on another task. But once people wrote a concrete plan for it – when, where and how – the intrusive thoughts went away, even though the task wasn’t done. So the first step against overwhelm isn’t doing; it is getting things out of your head and giving each one a place.

A 15-minute plan for when you’re overwhelmed

1. Stop for one minute. A slow breath in through your nose and a long breath out through your mouth, five times. This isn’t about relaxing – it’s about stopping the switching between ten things (more in how to calm down fast).
2. Get everything onto paper (5 minutes). Tasks, promises, calls, worries, ideas. One item per line, no sorting, no judging. The full method is a brain dump.
3. Sort into four piles (4 minutes). Must happen today (it’s due today or blocking someone), this week, can wait, and drop or hand off. Be strict with the “today” pile – it usually ends up with two to four items.
4. Pick one thing for right now (1 minute). The one that brings the most relief or the one that is most urgent. Don’t start with quick little jobs that just keep you busy.
5. Give everything else a time (3 minutes). “Thursday 10:00 – proposal for the Smiths.” “Friday after lunch – expenses.” Anything without a date goes on a later list. This is the step that relieves your mind the most.
6. Say no to what doesn’t fit (1 minute). Write one message: move a deadline, hand a task back or decline something new. Sample sentences are below.

How to tell what is really urgent

When everything is “now”, nothing is. Three questions help:

• What happens if I don’t do it today? If the answer is “nothing serious”, it doesn’t belong in today.
• Is someone waiting on it? Things that block other people go before things that only wait for you.
• Is the deadline real, or does it just feel like one? Plenty of “urgent” things have deadlines nobody actually set.

For sorting by importance and urgency in the long run, use the Eisenhower Matrix. In acute overwhelm, the four piles above are enough – save the matrix for a calmer day.

And when you estimate how much you can get done today, take some off. Roger Buehler and colleagues (1994) showed that people routinely underestimate how long their own work takes, even when they know it took longer last time. Put less in the “today” pile than feels right – more in the planning fallacy.

When the acute pressure is gone, how to be more productive offers fifteen habits and a gentle 7-day plan. Continue with the wider guide: Low-energy day plan: choose what can wait.

How to say no and move a deadline: sample sentences

Often overwhelm can’t be solved by planning, because there is simply more work than fits. Then the answer is doing less. A few sentences you can adapt:

• Moving a deadline: “To do this properly I need until Thursday instead of Tuesday. Does that work?”
• Choosing: “I’m working on A and B right now. If I add C, which one should come first?”
• A smaller version: “I can deliver the first part by Friday and the rest next week.”
• Declining: “I’ll pass this time – I don’t want to do it half-heartedly.”

You don’t need to apologise or explain your whole week. A clear answer is more useful to the other person than work delivered late.

When overwhelm lasts for weeks

One-off overwhelm can be solved with fifteen minutes and a sheet of paper. If it comes back every day, planning isn’t enough: there is consistently more work than there are hours in the week. Talk about your workload with your manager or clients, limit the number of projects in progress and set a firm end to your day (shutdown ritual).

If you also feel exhausted even after weekends, more cynical and like nothing matters, read how to prevent burnout and talk to a doctor or psychologist. This article is general information, not medical advice.

Try it now in CORTEX

In CORTEX (free for everyone) you can empty your head with Capture a thought: you type one item after another into the Inbox, and CORTEX picks up the date or time from your sentence (“call Peter Thursday 10am”). Then open Plan my day – CORTEX shows what really fits into today’s time, keeps a buffer and offers the rest for Tomorrow or Later. If you have an account, open Plan my day.

app.getcortex.online/today