Episode 103 - Listen To This If… You’re feeling overwhelmed by a big task

Transcript

Jen (00:00:13)

Hello, hello. What a delight that you have joined Michael and I for another episode of Listen to This If……

We are the team from Let's Talk SciComm and in these very short five-ish minute episodes, we try and solve a problem that you might be stuck on.

We each get to give our number one top tip. And we don't... never know in advance if it's the same tip or not. So it's pretty fun and exciting.

So hello, Michael. Today's topic is: What do you do if you are feeling overwhelmed by a big task?

Michael (00:00:35)

Ooh, isn't this such a lovely question? Because I think we've all got a big task that is overwhelming to us.

Jen (00:00:52)

Indeed.

Michael (00:00:53)

Look, the thing I like to think about here is to, it can be a real mental game, right? I feel like you really need to forgive yourself for what's happened in the past around this big task and then really just focus on what is the next right thing that I can do that's going to make progress on this task, you know?

Maybe that's writing some to-do lists or a to-do list for the next day. And I think those points should be specific. So rather than "work on big task", you might say, you know, "find one relevant article on... related to the big task". Or something, you know, really small and specific.

What is the next right thing? And keeping in mind that maybe the next right thing for you to do is to go asleep.

Jen (00:01:53)

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes.

Michael (00:01:55)

Yeah, maybe... Maybe you need to go for a walk. Maybe that's the next right thing to do because if you try and sit there and just... You're not, you know, you're not making any progress, but you're kind of sacrificing your health in other ways, then that's going to compound in a bad way.

So yeah. What's the next best thing for you to do here? Something small, something actionable. And it doesn't have to be directly related to working on the task. It might be sleeping. It might be, you know, going to the gym or meditating.

Jen (00:02:31)

Gosh, I couldn't agree with you more, Michael. 'Cause often when I'm feeling very overwhelmed, I either need to go out and exercise, which for me is running or walking, or I need to sleep. Often for me, overwhelm comes with being tired. And the next day, things actually just feel so much better.

And so you're saying what's the next right thing. The acronym for me is 'W I N', which as you'll notice spells win, but stands for What's Important Now. And I actually have that on a little post-it note on my computer monitor, just like what's actually important now.

Because often you've got this, you know, I write a lot of to-do lists and to-do lists are very helpful for me. I feel like if things are down on paper, it's less scary.

But then sometimes the to-do list in and of itself is just hugely daunting because like, they're all important. I need to do all of them by yesterday and they all take a lot of time and I don't know where to start.

So yeah, like what's the most important thing now? And if I could go to bed tonight, having just one of those things done, what would be the thing that would help me to feel somewhat at ease about this big task? So all of that is just to say, I agree with you completely.

A different thing to say for my tip actually would be take a really big step back and reassess what is this big task and have you conceptualised it in, you know, a useful and accurate way?

Because, you know, asking yourself, what is the goal of doing this thing? And just being sure that you're not still carrying around a big task from you know, a previous version of yourself or a previous goal or just pre... a useful conversation with somebody or pre reflecting on what's important to you in your life right now.

Like I just think sometimes we carry around these big weights on our shoulders of these big difficult overwhelming tasks that fill us with dread and we procrastinate on and it's really hard.

And actually, the issue is that it's actually not a thing we still need to be doing, or at least not in the same way.

And maybe just going back to the big question of what's my goal here? Am I still invested in this? What outcome am I looking for? Is doing this big task likely to get me to that outcome?

All of those kind of big scary questions that when you're down in the weeds of a task and you're stressed and you've got deadlines and you're tired and, you know, often we can't take that step back and ask ourselves those big questions.

And there's been a few times in my life, which I don't have time to describe. But you know some of them Michael, where actually I was beating myself up with a big task that actually wasn't something I was invested in anymore and I didn't need to be doing.

Michael (00:05:08)

Yeah, no, that's a really good point because you probably think that if you've put some time into this task, you have to finish it. Otherwise, that time will be wasted.

But actually, maybe your time will be better spent doing something else, you know, depending on what your goals are.

Yeah, I really really like that one.

Jen (00:05:26)

Yeah. And if that is you, what Michael just said, then look up the sunk cost fallacy and understand why it's a fallacy to believe you have to complete something you've begun because yeah, it's a fallacy.

Michael (00:05:37)

Yeah. Phew! Feeling relieved now.

Jen (00:05:37)

Alright, so... phew.

That's right, no big tasks. None at all.

Michael (00:05:43)

Yeah.

Jen (00:05:44)

Good luck everybody.

Michael (00:05:46)

Good luck with your big task.

Michael (00:05:57)

Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed the episode and a huge thanks to our production team, Steven Tang and Madeleine Kelly.

That's it for this week. See ya.