More and more of my clients have been coming in with what I have begun to call Too Much to Do Stress.

TMTD Stress wears you out mentally and physically. It actually causes you to be less productive instead of more because you can't give your best to any one thing.

Here are eight steps I've found to be helpful in dealing with TMTD Stress:

Write it all down: Writing tasks down gets them out of your head and onto paper, which makes them instantly more manageable. It also means you are much less likely to forget something important, which just brings on more stress.

Dump what really does not have to be done: Once you have written it all down, you can see that some things simply do not have to be done -- not today, not this week, not ever.

Prioritize: Identify the most important things and/or the ones that must be done right away. If you take care of the high-priority items first, you will enjoy a sense of accomplishment. You'll then have much more energy for the things that come later. Another way to prioritize is to do the things you really dislike doing first. You avoid procrastinating by getting them out of the way and out of your head.

Delegate: Now look at your list and decide what items someone else can do for you. Failure to delegate comes from the false notion that the only way to get it done right or get it done at all is to do it all yourself. If someone else can do something better than you can, give it to them.

Divide and conquer: While it's nice to have a staff or a partner to share the load, you can also divide and conquer on your own. For example, when you have too much to do in one week, get out your calendar or just a sheet of paper and divide it into seven days. Now take your to-do list and assign each task to a different day.

Watch your pressure language:

Here are some examples of pressure language: "How am I ever going to get this all done?" "I'm never going to get this all done." "I can't believe I have to do all this!" "This is just not fair; no one else has this much to do!"

Do one more thing: One mark of success, whether it be in sports, business, relationships or any other endeavor is to do more than is expected of you. When you have completed the list of items plugged into a certain day, choose something to do from the next day's list. You'll realize just how much you are capable of and will be ahead of the game.

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