How To Use AI To Overcome The Feeling Of Overwhelm

When everyone else seems to be coping, you may feel you should push on and do more. Pausing to understand why you feel overwhelmed can be hard. But before you take on more, ask yourself what’s causing the overwhelm.

You might be working hard to get more done with a tool that doesn’t meet your needs. If the tool doesn’t help, you may start to doubt your skills.

Instead, identify what’s causing your overwhelm, then choose a tool that helps with that cause. Give yourself time to work out what you need, even when you feel you should keep working. The right tool can ease the strain. A tool that doesn’t help is no proof that you can’t cope.

Watch the video below, "The Psychology of Emotionally Regulated People Facing an Overwhelming Workload", to hear more.

When you can’t afford to meet two needs at once, you may blame yourself for not having enough money. How can AI help you look at your finances without judging yourself, so you can decide what to do next?

If paying for your child’s school trip leaves you without enough money for fuel, you might think, “I should have planned better.” Money is tight, but blaming yourself can make a lack of cash feel like a personal failure.

You could ask AI: “Help me separate what I can afford from what I’m blaming myself for. I need to pay for my child’s school trip and fuel, but I don’t have enough for both. Help me look at the costs, the money I have, and my thoughts about how I’ve handled it.”

Looking at your finances and self-blame separately may help you see what needs to change. Not having enough money does not mean you’ve failed. With less self-blame, you may find it easier to decide what to do next.

If you want to understand how self-blame and too much information can make managing your emotions harder, watch the video below.

Before you ask AI how to start a task that brings up painful feelings, should you explain why the task is hard to face? Explaining may mean facing pain you’ve set aside.

But if you ask AI how to stop putting the task off without saying why the task feels painful, will the advice help you start? Or could the advice make the task even harder to face?

You could start by asking AI to help you name what hurts. Then ask for help taking one small step toward the task. You don’t have to face all the pain at once.

You can watch the video below to see how painful feelings can change your sense of how much you have to do.

Why face a long task list when you’re already putting off a job because you don’t know where to start?

Breaking the job into small steps makes sense. But seeing every step at once may leave you feeling overwhelmed, with even more tasks to put off.

Ask AI to break the job into small steps and show you only the first one. Finish that step, then ask for the next. Facing one step at a time may help you feel less overwhelmed.

To hear more about overwhelm and why childhood trauma survivors put off problems that feel too hard to separate, watch the video below.

When you feel too overwhelmed to start, should you ask AI to help with one task? What if your other tasks become harder to manage while you focus on that one?

Would tackling one task ease your stress, or leave you with more work later?

Try this: ask AI to help you pick one concern you can describe in a few words. Take one small step to address that concern, and set the others aside for now. That step may help you feel less overwhelmed. You don’t have to fix everything at once.

Watch the video below to learn how to manage your feelings about one worry instead of trying to handle every worry at once when you feel overloaded.

Why allow more time for each task and take on less work when you already struggle to find time for sleep or rest?

If you underestimate how long tasks will take, you may agree to more work than you can fit into your day. Then, to finish everything, you may cut back on sleep.

Ask AI to help you estimate how long each task will take. Set aside time for sleep and rest first, then work out which tasks fit into the remaining time. Once you see how much work you already have, you may feel more confident saying no to extra work.

For more on how the strain of planning your day can make saying no to extra work harder, watch the video below.

When you already have so much to do, making a list can feel like one more task.

You want to make sure you don’t forget anything. But trying to remember every task can take more effort than writing your tasks down.

Write your tasks on paper, then set alarms for the tasks you need to do at a certain time. A list and reminders can help you feel less stressed because you don’t have to rely on memory alone.

Watch the video below to see how trying to remember unwritten tasks adds to your mental load.

Why search through AI chats to find your tasks when you’re already stressed and have too much on your mind?

You want AI to help you keep track of your tasks so you have less to remember. But if AI goes down, can you still find your task list?

Ask yourself two questions: Does the way I use AI give me less to remember? Do I have a clear place to find my tasks, even when AI is down?

Both matter. Having less to remember can help you feel more at ease, but you also need to know where to find your tasks. AI should reduce stress, not add to it by making your tasks hard to find.

If your workload feels overwhelming, watch the video below to learn how emotional regulation can help.

Could a list made with AI give you more work when you already have too much to keep track of?

Ask the same question when you make a list for someone you’re helping: will the list make her day easier or give her more to manage? If the list adds work, she may be less keen to ask for help next time.

Try asking her: “Does this list mean you have less to remember, or does it give you more to do?” If the list doesn’t help, be open to changing your approach. The goal is to make her day easier, with or without AI.

Watch the video below for more on managing emotions when there’s too much information to take in, with or without AI.

Should you ask AI to help you work out which tasks are yours and how much work to take on?

Helping a colleague raises a similar question: could your help leave them with less say in their own work?

To avoid taking over, ask AI to help you identify which tasks may be your colleague’s responsibility. Then talk with your colleague to agree on how much help you’ll give. Let your colleague lead and decide what help to accept.

To see how I used AI to decide how much work I could take on, watch the video below.

Does learning to use AI for stress relief feel like one more task when you’re already short on time?

You just want to feel calmer. But when you take a class to learn how to use AI, you may struggle to follow along. You’re not sure how to ask the teacher for help, so you stay quiet.

Try asking the teacher, “Can you walk me through the first step?” Then try that step yourself. A little guidance may help you use AI tools more easily. Asking for help now may also make you more comfortable asking again next time.

To see how beginners who feel overwhelmed are taught to manage their emotions, watch the video below.

Saying no to a friend who needs help can be hard, especially when you need time for your own work. Even when you have no plans, saying no can leave you feeling guilty.

You want to help by watching your friend’s child, but you also have tasks to finish. You may worry that if you say no now, your friend will stop asking for help.

Set aside time for your own work first. Then let your friend know when you’re free to watch their child. Your friend will know when they can count on your help.

Take a moment to watch the video below about being overloaded and no longer trying to please everyone.