How do we get out of overwhelm?
By Kim Deans
This simple question from a client this month left me contemplating the concept of overwhelm. As is often the case what you focus on grows and I started noticing overwhelm in my clients and conversations even more.
There is an epidemic of overwhelmed farmers. The stress from labour shortages, climate variability, biosecurity threats, rising interest rates, fuel and fertiliser prices alongside the pressures of living and running a business rurally are all contributing factors.
Overwhelm impedes our ability to act, think or function to the best of our ability. Instead of being able to keep all the balls in the air some get dropped. The best analogy I have heard was a recent comment from a dairy farmer that “my cup is empty, and my plate is full.”
Prolonged stress puts our physical and mental health and relationships at risk, it impairs our decision making and reduces our personal regenerative capacity. For our business to be regenerative it must be building our own internal human capacity rather than destroying it with stress and overwhelm. With all these factors outside of our control at play how we manage our stress and navigate periods of overwhelm plays a crucial role in regenerating agriculture. Regenerating agriculture starts and ends with regenerating ourselves.
When we are in overwhelm our brains are full to overflowing, our mental capacity is stretched beyond its limits trying to contain the never ending list of jobs on the to do list, the information we have been listening to in podcasts, the alternative options of advice we have been reading telling us what to do on social media, the unread emails in our inbox, the work of many we have to do because we can’t find staff, too many urgent decisions to be made, concerns about whether we are doing the right things and whether we will make money on this year’s crop….
When we find ourselves in the swamp of overwhelm the first place to start is to slow down and consider the reasons we are feeling overwhelmed. Some common causes of the overwhelm I am seeing are:
Paralysis by analysis from consuming too much information
Realising the enormity of the task ahead, not knowing where to start
Feeling lost and unclear in direction with too many decisions to make and not knowing what to do next
Managing conflicting priorities
Making sense of conflicting information
Too much work and not enough people to do it all
Impatience and wanting immediate results that aren’t happening yet
Financial concerns
Identifying the root cause/s of our overwhelmed state opens the door for us to take action to regain some capacity. Doing a brain dump and getting everything out of our head onto paper can start to free up some mental capacity, provided the list does not freak us out even more when we see the list! Don’t panic, we don’t have to take action on everything on this list, its purpose is to get everything out of our head where we can see it. We can then make decisions about what we can do something about, what our priorities are, where we can ask for help and what we need to stop doing.
Talking through the overwhelm with a family member, friend or professional coach or counsellor can help bring things out into the light to be processed if we are still in the fog of overwhelm after the brain dump. Prioritising sleep, nourishing food, hydration, and movement are crucial in this state. Taking a break, even for an hour, an afternoon, a day, or a weekend provides some perspective so we can start with whatever we can manage. When we can’t take a break, we can start by slowing down and taking some deep breaths for 5 minutes. The more we have on our plates the more vital prioritising self-care is.
From here we can take stock of what we have learned from being in this overwhelmed state, what the contributing factors are, what triggers our stress and consider how we can set up time management systems and self-care strategies to stay out of the swamp of overwhelm in future.
The best time management system is the one we actually use. The best way I have found to help clients to figure this out is to start simply by implementing a 10-15 minute weekly planning session and a short operational meeting to communicate this plan to business partners and staff. Once the habit of weekly operational planning is established, scaling up to quarterly strategic planning helps to improve our effectiveness, focus and direction which all go towards managing the resources you have available in your business optimally and proactively in future.
When we realign our focus to the re-sources within our control as business owners through some simple time management techniques, we are better equipped to navigate the overwhelming amount of information, tasks and distractions that impact us each day. Regenerating agriculture starts with us, instead of putting off planning until we find the time, when we start prioritising planning we make the time.