There are plenty of people like me who, in the face of overwhelming responsibilities, cave in and freeze. And if you’re an overthinker (again, like me), being in this state can be especially difficult (and frequent). In all honesty, I’ve never seriously developed a strategy for myself on how to deal with pressure. Most of the time I just try to work my way around big tasks, contributing what I can, but not really be in it. I knew I can’t go on that way for long: and when time comes when I have to take on a major responsibility, I just freeze.

And by “freeze” I mean ultimate procrastination. I catch up on TV series, movies, books. I re-watch TV series, movies, reread books. I know, it’s super unproductive.

But that’s what you do when you’re stuck: you wallow in the pressure. And I was in that state since three weeks ago, and I haven’t started recovering until last week.

So how did I begin being unstuck?

The golden scolding-guiding advice from my boss. So the following guide is not really my original advice — since I’ve never developed any strategy for myself.

Go “brain-dumping.”

This is when you stop and write everything.

Free some mental RAM. Don’t even attempt to organize it. Invest time on this stage and make a running list of every task on the top of your head. Don’t be tempted to do any of those tasks unless they take 2 minutes or less. Any more than that, don’t.

I admit that this stage was a little painful for me and my forgetful brain, but I went ahead and did it.

Take a break, and then continue dumping.

The first is step is just the first round. There are a few more items that are lurking in your head, and they can now resurface because you’ve “dumped” the first ones that may have been running in your head for quite some time now, rendering you a rocking chair: moving but not going anywhere.

Make a Mind Map

Fancy, huh? This may be a technique that resonates well with visual people, but it really is a technique that works with anyone. This is where organizing and categorizing your running list (from Step 2) comes in. So from a central node, let’s call it Brain, comes out branches. The first-level branches are essentially the major groups.

If you’re making a mind map for life in general, your major groups can be your major responsibilities, such as family, work/blog, church and/or charity, school. And from these first-level branches comes out second-level branches, and so on.

How you categorize it is important. Simplify: never make too many branches. If you observe you can’t avoid making more branches, then you might not just be overwhelmed – you may be overloaded. And that’s a story for another day.

There are a lot of mind-mapping software out there that you can try. What I’m using is Mindomo — and yes, it’s free.

Trick your brain

Hide everything in your mind map except for one task.

This where I was really hooked. At the last level branches, where all the doable tasks are located, select one that will make the most progress for its mother node. This may be the most income-generating task, or the most urgent one.

Make this task pop out from the rest of tasks: put it at the top, make it bold, or change its color.

And here’s the trick: for all the other tasks, group them together in a new sub-branch from the mother node, name it Next Steps for Later, and opt to collapse/hide the items of that new branch.

Voila! Now you can focus on one actionable step!

Do this for all other branches. Then after accomplishing the single doable task, continue extracting and highlighting the next actionable steps from the Later list.

Amazing, right?

Follow your mind map scrupulously.

Your mind map will be for nothing if you won’t fully use it as your guide. Continue updating it, growing it, organizing it. Free your mind from endlessly swirling stuff and solidify it in your mind map.

Random task came in?

Make a “Bucket” branch, and categorize it later.

I love this part as well. You’ve created your glorious mind map, and then a task came in. You’re not sure where to categorize it, and you’re pretty occupied at the moment. No worries. Just make a new first-level branch calledBucket (or whatever cool name you want to give it) and just dump any new or random tasks that come your way.

But remember not to procrastinate in categorizing your Bucket items. I’d suggest that you categorize it after the work day.

And that’s it.

As Abraham Lincoln said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Transferring your thoughts to paper (or software) and organizing it is what sharpening the axe is.