It can be a bit like a trap that turns into a hamster wheel that just seems to have no exit and you just keep running!

Do you know the feeling?

So, how do you stop?

Seems to me that there are three choices:

1. jump off the hamster wheel and hope for the best

2. keep running until a stretcher arrives to forcibly take you off

3. slow your pace from a sprint, to a run, to a walk until you get to a more manageable, sustainable pace

Option 3 sounds perfect, but how do you do it?

If I had the answer to that, I’d be a very wealthy woman and would probably be sitting in some ashram somewhere idyllic, sharing my wisdom with the world.

Sadly I’m not. But I do have some tips that help me when I get to this stage:

  1. write a list of all the things you need to do 
  2. separate them into categories if that helps (categories could be work, personal, family)
  3. prioritise them into urgent, will become urgent, not urgent but necessary, not urgent
  4. go over the list and see if anything can be delegated or outsourced
  5. take a walk, go to the gym, have a swim, pump up the music and have a 5 min dance or do something (anything) to clear your head and change your state
  6. return to your desk and get to work on task 1.

In my experience, step 5 is the key to success.

My long term strategy is to have a speed controller fitted to the hamster wheel.

What works for you in times like this?