I’m writing to you today from the land of overwhelm.

A six week stretch of travel had already reduced my output. Then, I got caught in an earthquake in Panama. And finally, upon returning home on little sleep, I was laid out by a bug my son brought home from school.

Last week, which should have been a chance to catch up and reset, turned into a complete washout, adding to the work and life debt I find myself buried under.

This weekend, as I started to think about the week ahead, I noticed a familiar, building sensation.

A clenching tension in my jaw and neck. A heavy drop in my shoulders. An elevated heart rate.

For me, these are the classic signs of feeling overwhelmed.

Fortunately, I’ve been here before. I know how to manage it. And since I’m sure you’ve been here, too, I want to share exactly how I do it.

This is my Overwhelm Protocol (5 steps, in order):

Step 1. Move the body.

The body and the mind are intimately connected. The most common signs of my overwhelm all feel physical in nature, so I always begin here.

With movement.

And it turns out there’s real science to substantiate the idea.

In a ​2017 literature review​, researchers found that a single bout of acute exercise had consistent positive effects on executive function, mood, and stress.

To engage these benefits, I schedule a ~30-60 minute window for some form of movement. It could be a lift or a run, but most often, to avoid over-taxing myself, I just go for a walk.

In a letter from 1847, philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote:

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness...if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”

As an added bonus, a walk in nature has been shown to ​reduce rumination​ and ​boost creative thinking​.

This step isn’t about improving your fitness. It’s about using your body to effectively reset your system.

Step 2. Clean your room.

I've found that my visual field has an outsized impact on my mental state.

A clean visual field supports a clean mental state; a cluttered one feeds the chaos.

There's an extremely high ROI on spending 5-10 minutes tidying up your environment prior to diving into the work if you're feeling overwhelmed.

It's like a second mental reset button that you can hit right after pressing the physical one with the movement.

Research from Princeton Neuroscience Institute professor Sabine Kastner has shown that visual clutter in your environment creates a drag on your overall cognitive performance.

Basically, each object in your visual field competes for your attention and focus, wearing down your mental resources over time.

Every random object is effectively an open loop. Clean up to close them.

Step 3. Make a Weekly Win Card.

When you have a million things on your plate, it’s easy to get lost in the small and lose sight of the big.

So, before I dive into the weeds, I zoom out to see the bigger picture.

If I were to imagine myself at the end of the day on Friday, feeling like the week was a win, what would I have accomplished? What big tasks would have been knocked out?

I make a Weekly Win Card, which is a list of these 5-7 things that, if completed, would make the week a win.

The meaty, important items.

I either write these down on a notecard that stays on my desk, or on a big whiteboard (my new tool of choice), to keep them front and center throughout the week.

Step 4. Create a snowball.

Dave Ramsey, a well-known financial personality, swears by what he calls the debt snowball method.

List out all of your non-mortgage debts from smallest to largest. Then, start paying them off in that order, ignoring interest rates.

It’s counterintuitive. You'd think you should start by tackling the big or high interest ones first, but Ramsey believes that the psychological momentum of small wins keeps people going.

Whatever you think of it as a finance strategy, the logic applies perfectly to managing overwhelm.

When it comes to the work itself, I always start by creating a snowball.

I list out the open loops on my plate. Usually, it’s too many to count. Then, I set aside ~30-60 minutes and start closing open loops, starting with the smallest, most manageable ones first.

If it takes less than 5 minutes to tackle, I start there.

In a short, focused sprint, you can often close 10+ open loops. The momentum from that sprint is undeniable. It reduces the weight of the overwhelm and gives you something to build from.

Step 5. Knock down a wall.

With a snowball of momentum, I set my sights on a wall to knock down.

Usually, that “wall” is a single item from the Weekly Win Card that I’m going to focus on for an extended work session.

My goal is to stay on that one task until I can cross it off the list.

This typically looks like:

• 90-120 minute block
• Headphones on
• Favorite playlist on repeat (classical music or coffee shop sounds)
• All other windows closed, focus app on
• Phone in lockbox

I build momentum on the small and then leverage that momentum to knock out the big.

As I write the closing of this piece, I've found my way out from the land of overwhelm.

The pile of work and life debt is still there, but it's smaller than it was.

And most importantly, it doesn't trigger the same physical sensations as it did, because I know I have an approach to tackle it.

So, the next time you feel it building, here's your plan.

Just follow the five steps:

1. Move your body. Even a 15 minute walk counts. Press the physical reset button.
2. Clean your room. Remove the visual clutter that pulls on your attention.
3. Make a Weekly Win Card. Write down the items that would make the week a win. Stay big picture.
4. Create a snowball. Start with anything that'll take five minutes or less. Build momentum by closing small, easy open loops.
5. Knock down a wall. Leverage the momentum on something big. Cross off a weekly win item. Then another.

No matter where you find yourself, no matter how deep or dark the hole, you're always just one positive move from being in a slightly better place.

Work the plan and you'll find your way to the other side.