Buying Stress Relief: Overworked and Overwhelmed
Everywhere we turn, advertisements bombard us with promises of organization - systems designed to revolutionize how we manage tasks and boost productivity. They offer new approaches, claiming to save time or secure that coveted promotion if only you follow their prescribed steps. Perhaps it’s a concept that claims to reshape how you approach your work, guaranteeing better, faster results.
But why do these ads catch your eye? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks you face? Or are you stuck in a stressful, taxing situation with no clear escape?
If you struggle to get organized, by all means, read up! Ask that calm, collected colleague who consistently delivers results on time how they manage their workload. If their secret involves sleepless nights or excessive overtime, seek another perspective - there are better solutions.
Have you already embraced Stephen Covey’s excellent principles? Read countless articles and books on productivity and organization? Are you knowledgeable about creating a well-structured system and open to innovation?
If these abilities are within your grasp, your attraction to the latest “new way” may not signal the need for a better system. It could be your finely tuned internal warning system kicking in.
The allure of the “Buy Now” button might reflect a desire for the work to simply be done. Is the real appeal of a new system its promise to help you complete tasks, cross them off your overflowing to-do list, and move on? The time you spent reading about the latest app, gadget, or program could have been used to chip away at your workload. While some tools offer real-time-saving benefits, most people are just searching for something - anything - to get the work done. And sometimes, that “something” is you.
Your instincts may be signaling something deeper. Perhaps your internal warning system is telling you that the project’s current trajectory won’t yield the desired results. Or maybe your gut is urging you to pause, rethink, or reimagine.
Before clicking “Buy Now” on that new organizational tool, consider the underlying meaning of your desire. Sometimes, the appeal of a new system is its effectiveness as a procrastination tool. It can take considerable time to learn, set up, and implement a new system. And often, the fear of failure can prevent us from completing a project, making the quest for a new tool just another way to delay and avoid potential disappointment.
We cannot shop our way out of being overworked and overwhelmed. Delaying a project to avoid the fear of failure only prolongs the stress. So, the next time you feel an unreasonable pull toward an ad promising the “next best thing” to streamline your life, pause. Ask yourself: What do I expect this new tool to accomplish? Will it truly deliver, or is it just another delay in the game?