Episode 586: 5 Ways to Decrease Overwhelm (Mindset & Self-care)

EBT586 – 5 Ways to Decrease Overwhelm

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Ikram Ali) 00:37

We all know what it’s like to be completely swamped in our business from juggling a dozen or so hats. And sometimes you just need a little help. If you’re ready to elevate your blog with stunning imagery, but lack the time I got you covered. I’m Ikram Ali, the photographer behind Ikram Ali Photography. I use my background in Pastry Arts and cake decorating, blending my culinary expertise and my photography skills to create premium still images and engaging short form videos for food bloggers and brands alike. If you’re ready to start updating old content, or just needing to get food photography checked off your list, I’m here to help you can go to the services page on IkramAliPhotography.com That’s spelt, Ikram, I-K-R-A-M, Ali, A-L-I photography.com. I’m excited about the prospect of working together. Bye friends.

Megan Porta  01:32

Hello, awesome people. Welcome to this self care and mindset focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. Thank you for listening and tuning in today, in this episode, we’re going to talk about five ways to decrease overwhelm. I have a question for you to start the episode, and that is, how is your level of overwhelm in this moment? Do you feel like your project list or your to do list are about to strangle you? I hate that feeling, or are you feeling pretty good? Do you not have a ton of overwhelm right now? I truly hope you can say that you are feeling great and that you are not overwhelmed, but if you press play on this episode, it’s likely that you’re feeling some level of overwhelm. I have been thinking about this word and this feeling a lot lately, because I’ve used this word often in the past, when people have asked me about my business or how I’m doing or how work is going, I use the word overwhelm a lot. I’ve done it for over a decade now, so it has been a really ingrained word in my vocabulary. The summer has been transformative for me in a lot of ways. It has not been the easiest summer, I will say that. But do you know that feeling of being in the middle of something big that you know is happening, and how you can just feel the chaos going on in the midst of what’s going on, like it’s maybe a transformation that’s taking place, or something. It’s really hard to describe, but that’s the best way I can think to describe it. That describes my summer in a nutshell. 

Megan Porta  03:16

If you are an entrepreneur long enough, you are bound to experience times when you have to evolve or you can’t go on. That’s where I’m at. It’s like life has been telling me, Grow, evolve, change for the better, or else bad things are going to happen. So I’ve been listening because I don’t want the bad things. And one of the things I’ve really tuned into is my level of overwhelm, how overwhelmed I feel, but also how I talk and think about my overwhelm. It became kind of a go to response for so long for me, people would ask how work was going, and I’d reply with, Oh, it’s good just feeling overwhelmed lately as I’ve had to massively slow down and reassess the summer that reality has really changed for me, up until last week, when I really started digging into work seriously again, I’ve really been able to take a lot of the summer off. It’s been glorious and so needed for my soul. So I’ve changed my script to reflect all of this, and to be honest, it felt a little weird at first. If someone has asked me this summer, How’s work going, I’ve been saying I haven’t been working a whole lot, but when I do, it’s good, by the way. It’s so funny how people respond to this. It’s almost like I’m confessing a deep, dark secret, because I get the funniest looks every time I say this, especially to a non-food blogger. I feel like food bloggers get it. We know we need breaks occasionally, but for the quote, regular working world, they look at me like I’m completely nuts. I think I’ve trained my friends and my family over the years to assume that I’m, I’m always overwhelmed, because now that I’m not overwhelmed, everyone seems shocked. I am truly the opposite of overwhelmed about work in this moment. But I can only say that because I’ve just been through, or I guess I’m still going through a transformation, a painful, at times challenging transformation, but I believe I’m going to come out on the other side of this overall much less overwhelmed again. If you do this entrepreneurial thing long enough, you too will be blessed with the occasional transformation. But if you’re feeling overwhelmed now in this moment and need permission to lift yourself out of it. This episode is your permission to take a step back and do a few things so that you can lift overwhelm from your life today and this week. 

Megan Porta  05:51

Let’s talk through five ways to decrease overwhelm. Number one, time tracking. I know I’m a broken record when it comes to talking about time tracking. This point comes up in a lot of these mindset episodes. Have you noticed that? It’s just so powerful. It’s so simple yet very, very powerful. So step one, if you are feeling overwhelmed in this moment, track everything you do for a minimum of three days, and preferably seven days. You can use an app like Toggl, spelled T, O, G, G, l, it’s totally free and so awesome. Or you can just open a Google Sheet. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just do it. Start logging your time and logging what you’re working on and for how long, and not just what you’re working on, but what you’re doing with time outside of work as well. It might seem pointless or silly to do time logging, but I promise it’ll all make sense when you’re done logging. Once you have a time log in front of you, it’s like having a gold mine of data right in your fingertips. You no longer have to guess at what you’ve been spending your time doing. It’s all right here an accurate account of exactly what you’ve been up to for the past week. Now, comb through this data with a fine tooth comb. If you use an app like toggle, it will organize projects and reports for you in a single click. If you create your own method of logging, you’ll have to do this yourself. Every time I time log, something shocking pops out at me when I first started time logging, I remember being blown away by the amount of time I was working each week, not because it was a lot, but because it was a lot less than I’d anticipated. This caused me to explore why I felt so drained all the time, because my hours per week worked did not align with how I was feeling energetically. This caused me to cut back on Zoom calls I didn’t need to be a part of it prompted me to outsource a few things that depleted me. It caused me to really evaluate what was draining me in my business and outside of my business. I think somehow we talk ourselves into believing certain false truths about how we’re spending our time, and the magic of time logging is that it’s a big honest truth serum that sets us straight. This true serum forces us to make changes so we are not as overwhelmed. In my opinion, this is the number one and most powerful way to decrease overwhelm. If there’s any point you follow through with from this episode, please, let it be this one. 

Megan Porta  08:21

Number two, exercise and self care. This one is kind of a no brainer, but if you are feeling overwhelmed, a great way to diminish those icky feelings is to get into a daily habit of exercising and performing acts of self care, loving yourself and taking really good care of yourself helps to take your mind off the things that are causing overwhelm, plus all of those good physical and mental benefits happen inside of you that improve your overall health. If exercise is not something that you typically do commit to starting with just 10 minutes a day, you can do things like walking, do some yoga, do core exercises, light jogging. Just get started with something. There are so many things you can do to take care of yourself in the realm of self care. Here are a few ideas meditation. Just get quiet outside or inside your house. Spend some time in nature. Spend time with pets. Read a good book. Spend some time creating, doing art or journaling, or whatever creative endeavors you love, especially when done with consistency over time, taking care of your mind and body will naturally decrease the overwhelm in your life. 

Megan Porta  09:32

Number three, take a break. Two meanings come to mind when I say take a break. Number one, taking a 30 minute or so break on days when you just feel like overwhelm is swallowing you. And number two, taking a week long, or maybe month long or more break during seasons of overwhelm, having a season of overwhelm. If you’ve experienced this, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is. No joke, and it’s not healthy for you. It’s not healthy for your body or your mind or the people around you. If you recognize that you are just deeply overwhelmed by the season you’re in, please commit to taking a break. I have referred a few times to my summer transformation and the fact that I’m currently very underwhelmed in the best way. I never would have gotten here without taking a massive break. I followed my gut with this, and I am so grateful that I did. I’ve been in overwhelmed seasons before when I ignored those nudges to take a break, every single time this led to bad things. So follow your gut with this. Maybe you need a break from social media or just from publishing content on your blog or just being on your blog. It might be really project specific, or it could be more broad, like with my overwhelm and my break this summer. Whatever your gut is telling you, listen, take that break you need, whether it’s the 30 minute break in the middle of the day or a month long break from your business. And when you listen to these nudges, I promise you’re overwhelming, be more manageable and possibly just go away entirely. 

Megan Porta  11:13

Number four, limit tech and social media. I do not need to tell you about the effects of social media on our minds. Too much of it can cause me, personally, anxiety, extra tiredness, sadness and definitely a sense of being overwhelmed. This one is so hard for us food bloggers, because we want traction. We want followers. We want increased everything, including engagement, reach, page views, clicks, saves and money and so on, which means we need to spend time with phone in hand, with computer open, and sometimes that means being on social media. It’s like this vicious cycle, lots of social media time and tech time leads to all that good stuff, so we don’t want to stop which leads to all the negative stuff. How do we get ourselves off that hamster wheel? Sometimes I think we just need to step off, regardless of what will happen to our reach or numbers or any of that other stuff. This is something we can all just feel inside of ourselves, kind of like when we just feel we need to take a break from a part of our business. If you have that nagging feeling inside like you should probably take a break from social media or your phone or your computer, listen again, listen up and follow that nudge and just do it. That might mean you drastically reduce the amount of time you spend on Instagram daily, or it might mean that you take a month long break from Facebook and Instagram, only you know how long of a break you need. And from what I’m here to tell you that your people are still going to be there when you return. I promise they will. The world is not going to end. Nothing in your business is going to explode. And after your return, you will be much less overwhelmed human making you so much better when you are ready to show back up again. 

Megan Porta  13:05

Number five, laugh and love. I love this one because it’s easy and it’s super fun. If I’m in a season of overwhelm and suddenly find myself laughing over an insanely weird board game I’m playing with my kids, I get that feeling like, wow, this is really good for my soul. I need to do this more often. There’s so much research done about love and laughter being healing for your soul, including your sense of overwhelm. Laughter and love literally heal you from the inside out. Put yourself in situations where you know you’ll feel love and where there’s opportunity to laugh. Sometimes, when I feel overwhelmed, I know I just have to walk across my house and find one of my people and sit down and have a conversation with them, or play a game with them, or just sit next to them and watch a good show or something. This always results in smiling, good feelings, love and sometimes even crazy laughter, you should hear some of the weird things my boys say that make me laugh. They are so silly. Have you ever spent an evening with friends and you’ve left with your face muscles hurting because you’ve just been laughing so hard? I love that feeling. Do more of that consistently and overwhelm will fade from your life. 

Megan Porta  14:22

That’s all I have. This was a short one today. Five ways to decrease overwhelm. Number one, time tracking. Two, exercise and self care. Three, take a break. Four, limit tech and social media and five, laughter and love. This is one of my new soapbox topics. My list of soapbox topics seems to be growing as I evolve as an entrepreneur, we don’t have to claim overwhelm in our lives and businesses. Ditch the overwhelm today. Do it this week, this month and forever in your business by keeping an eye on it and just listening to and following your gut. I hope this episode helps you. Thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you next week. 

Outro  15:04

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.