It was the middle of the day, I was sitting in my office, and I didn’t know what to do. The door was closed, the blinds were shut, and I just sat there struggling to move. I felt paralyzed.

I recently got off a call where I was asked for an update on a project that appeared to be stalled. My email was filling up with many requests for assistance on different things. I had several people reaching out to me over Skype. I also had a calendar full of meetings and activities that I knew I couldn’t possibly get to.

I was feeling a lot of pressure from multiple people and commitments and it was overwhelming.

Part of me wanted to jump in and do everything I could to complete as much as possible even knowing it wasn’t possible to do it all and I was not going to be able to give my best quality of work.

Another part of me felt the urge to just do nothing because I knew it was impossible to do everything that was being asked of me.

In that moment of indecision, I felt paralyzed. I knew neither was the right answer and I also knew I would not be proud of myself if I willingly chose one of the two options.

I was in a fight or flight situation and instead of choosing a direction I just froze, and I felt miserable.

As I sat there feeling hopeless I did the only thing I could think of. I did my best to just breathe, quiet the noise both around me and in my head, and then I asked myself what was the most important thing that needed my attention at that moment and what could I honestly do about it.

After I decided on an area and what I believed I needed to do I focused all my attention on it until I felt I made adequate progress. Then I took an honest assessment of what else needed my attention, prioritized them, and started on the next.

By the end of the day I had made progress on several of the projects I was working on. I did not get everything done. However, I was able to leave knowing I did what I could with the amount of time I had and sometimes that’s all we can do. Tomorrow is another day.

We are all faced with challenges and can feel extremely overwhelmed at times. This was not the first time for me to feel the way I did, and I am positive it will not be the last. Here is a list of some of the things I try to remind myself when I find myself in this type of situation.

“We all feel overwhelmed at times. Sometimes all you can do is prioritize and focus on the things that are the most important at the time.”

“When we’re overextended and have too much to do the smallest of tasks can seem overwhelming. To overcome this we have to prioritize.”

“There is usually not enough time to do everything we want each day. We must identify what must get done and plan our time wisely.”

“Spending too much time stressing over the things we don’t have time for will keep us from focusing on accomplishing the things we can.”

“Instead of complaining about not having enough time to do everything focus your efforts on using what time you have to do what matters most.”

“Sometimes you have to remove all of the noise going on around you and get really focused on what is the most important in the moment.”