Stuck in Creative Overwhelm? Try This No-Pressure 4-Step Reset
It’s Monday. You’re sat down, ready to 'start the week.'
There’s a stack (or a swirl?) of ideas in your mind. Lots of half-finished projects, ideas for new ones, and a to-do list of emails you need to reply to….
Funnily enough, this feels over…whelming.
You get a bit fidgety. You check your inbox. You open up Instagram. You remember that course you downloaded at the weekend, and remind yourself to schedule in some time to watch the first video.
Maybe you reply to a few emails that feel doable, then maybe start a newsletter draft…
But the bigger projects you’ve been meaning to do? Still feel 'vague' or scary. They feel like they 'need more time.' (“And when am I going to be able to do that?”)
This is the bit that feels heavy. This is where some of the voices pop up: “Why aren’t I more organised?” or “Why aren’t I better at this?”
Allow me to offer a different perspective: This isn’t a matter of whether you’re 'organised' or not. This is about feeling under pressure.
The hidden pressure of “I’m already behind”
When we tell ourselves “I need to be more organised!” it’s usually because we feel under pressure, or out of control.
The reason we feel under pressure — particularly on a Monday morning — is not just because we have 'things to do.' It’s because we think we have too many things to do. Including all the things we 'haven’t done yet.'
We often start our weeks like we’re carrying an invisible weight: with all the things you haven’t done, the projects that are still ‘un-started’, the ideas you still want to make happen, and the things that feel half-open, unclosed, still lingering in your periphery.
That weight is creating a nervous system response — not just a scheduling problem.
You might not be saying “I’m behind” out loud (or maybe you are). But your body (and overwhelm) is definitely feeling it. Which, annoyingly, makes it harder to start!
Pressure makes prioritisation harder — not easier
The irony is that the more pressure we put on ourselves to 'make the right decision' or 'get organised,' the more we find it harder to gain perspective about what actually matters, and to actually get going properly.
It’s like trying to thread an elephant through a needle — which of course, feels nigh on impossible. Pressure doesn’t make it easier; if anything, it just makes the 'elephant' look bigger and more like an elephant.
So let’s start somewhere else.
What if today was Day 0?
What if there was no “Yesterday I didn’t do the thing” and “Last week was a disaster!” ?
What if today, there was no thinking about what had, or hadn’t, gone before; and instead, there was just your ideas? Today, a clean slate.
No 'behind.' Just now, and what you want to work on.
A gentle but helpful method for organising your creative week
Here’s a method I recommend starting with if you’d like to 'organise' your creative week, but don’t want a rigid system or to feel under too much pressure to begin.
Step 1: Pause for perspective and relieve the pressure
This step is non-negotiable; and one I think that’s often missed in a lot of 'traditional productivity advice.'
Ask yourself:
Where am I putting pressure on myself right now?
What am I telling myself about what I should have done by now? (What simply isn’t true?)
How can I make that pressure go away — even just for today? What can I tell myself that would help relieve that pressure?
You don’t need to make ALL the pressure go away. But you need to give yourself enough room to breathe.
Step 2: Brain dump and make a long-list.
Now you’ve given yourself some breathing room, it’s time to assess what you want to work with.
Here, let both your 'creative head' and your 'business head' speak.
Ask your 'creative head' and 'business head' — what do you want to work on? What’s asking for attention? What feels important? Or would make the most impact?
Don’t censor, just write it down or note it somewhere. The idea is to have a list of 'chunks' of ideas and projects you want to work on. These might look like "Finish print collection" or "Send email newsletter" or "Get new items online in the shop"
Step 3: Make a short-list for the week
From your long list, choose about 3 or 4 'holdable in your mind' projects to focus on this week.
This gives you enough variety to not get bored, but not so many focuses that you feel like you’re split in twelve different directions.
By the way, a project doesn’t need to be finished by the end of the week — but it does need to have a clear outcome you can work toward.
So, for example, if one of your projects is to finish a painting, but you know it’s going to take many hours, one of the outcomes could be 'do another layer.'
Step 4: Zoom in to the correct level for action: now.
Finally, once we have a short list of projects and things to work on, we need to choose what to work on now, today.
What makes sense to work on, right now?
Again, this doesn’t mean finishing the whole thing. It’s about choosing a doable outcome, at this level. It doesn’t need to be the whole freebie. It could be the first page.
You’re not disorganised — just overloaded
'Overload' isn’t solved by trying to organise everything in the air at once. It’s about putting things down, before you pick some of them back up again.
Next time you’re feeling the overwhelm, don’t rush into ‘doing something else’ (even though it’s tempting). Give yourself the space to breathe.
You’re not behind. You’re here. Lay it all down — then pick things back up, one at a time.
PS. If this resonated, I send gentle, grounding notes like this most weeks. Pop your name and email below to get them delivered straight to your inbox.