In Getting Your Life On Track Part 1, we discovered a way to find out if the things we spend our time on are really that urgent and important.

In Getting Your Life On Track Part 2 we revealed how you could use that understanding to develop clear and important goals for yourself, so you’d always know you’re doing what you could best be doing.

But if you’re still feeling stressed and overwhelmed, here are 3 simple steps, adapted from David Allen’s Getting Things Done to unload your overload and reduce the anxiety you feel in your life.

Dump It

Do a mental core-dump. Get everything that you feel you should want and need to do, out of your head and into something else: a piece of paper or a document on your computer. Write it all out.

Stuff It

If we had our way, we do everything on our lists. But if you are already suffering from overload chances are you don’t have enough time to do everything you want. Looking at the list, what do you want to keep in there and what do you want to let go of?

Sort them out into 2 lists: Actionable for those you want to keep and act on, and Someday/Maybe for those you don’t.

So, be as selective as you can. Which is the high-leverage, important and worthwhile tasks you want to keep in your life?

Deal It

Looking at the Actionable list, which are the most important and worthwhile tasks to act on in the coming week? Schedule them in and make them real.

Dump, Stuff, and Deal It.

Getting uncompleted commitments out of your head and into a list, which you then sort and then act on will help you let go of unnecessary worries and relieve the stress in your life.

But sure, you might ask yourself, it works, I’m feeling better already, but how can I keep my life on the track like this all the time instead of making it just a one-off deal? The answer is simple, but not always easy, and I’ll explain it in my next post.

Getting Your Life On Track Series

Getting Your Life On Track Part 1
Getting Your Life On Track Part 2
Getting Your Life On Track Part 3
Getting Your Life On Track Part 4