What Actually Works When You’re Doing Too Much

Doing a little less can move you forward more.

Doing too much doesn’t always look like chaos; it often looks like a really good plan. Lately, I’ve been feeling it again. Client work, homeschooling, life admin… and now gardening season is here, which means I suddenly have very ambitious ideas about what this year’s garden is going to look like. More planted, more productive, more… everything.

And I genuinely want to do it all.

That’s usually the first clue I’m doing too much.

Because it’s not just the number of things, it’s the expectation behind them. I don’t just want to get things done, I expect myself to do them well, consistently, and preferably without dropping anything important. And when that doesn’t happen (because it doesn’t), I’m left with half-finished tasks, things I meant to circle back to, and that low-level feeling of being behind.

Then comes the brilliant idea: push harder.

That… does not go well.

Pushing usually just speeds up the crash. I’ll try to power through, maybe reorganize everything, tell myself to be more disciplined—but it just creates a bigger swing in the other direction. More avoidance, more frustration, more “why can’t I just get it together?”

What I’ve learned (and am still learning) is that when I hit that point, I don’t need a better plan.

I need less.

What actually works is almost annoyingly simple. Every time I reduce things down to one to three priorities, I start moving again. Not perfectly, not at lightning speed—but steadily. And steady feels a whole lot better than stuck.

It’s never the long, perfectly organized list that saves me.

It’s choosing a few things and letting that be enough for the day.

And when I feel completely jammed up, the thing that helps most isn’t productivity, it’s movement. Sometimes that looks like getting my hands in the dirt and starting something small in the garden. Sometimes it’s dancing in the kitchen or running around the kitchen island with my son for a few minutes.

It sounds ridiculous.

It works anyway.

It’s like it breaks the pressure just enough for me to come back and actually do something.

So if you’re in that “too much” place right now, here’s what I come back to:

• Choose 1–3 priorities. Let that be enough.

• Drop or delay one thing without explaining yourself. (This one is harder than it should be.)

• Move your body before you try to fix your focus.

You’re not behind.

You’re just trying to carry too much at once. By choosing a few focused priorities, you create forward motion with momentum, and you can get back on track, ready to grow at a pace that actually feels sustainable.