Recently, I had a very long conversation with a great friend, and we were talking about the idea of overwhelm. We talked about things like language learning and how complicated and frustrating that can be. I made a suggestion which I think ended up helping us both. The idea actually comes from "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, who I believe borrowed it from still someone else. He has a daily ritual of writing down three things on a sticky note before going to bed, and those three things are his "must-do" items -- his most important items to complete for the next morning BEFORE he can do anything else. No phone, no TV, no emails, etc., until these three things are accomplished. This sets the tone for the day on a high note of success before the day is really started. After I learned about this idea, I took it and applied it to more things – I wanted to use it on tasks, projects, plans, and more. At the time, I had countless other projects and commitments, and needless to say, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. To test out the theory, I picked, at random, a project involving a fair amount of planning for an event. I decided that, rather than three things per day related to this project, I would do just one thing. So, for this project, I created a duplicate of the planning spreadsheet I had used the year before for the same project, and I updated it with this year’s information, such as location, time, date, etc. AND, that was it! I was finished (or as we like to say in Baltimore, I was done!) I did nothing else on this project for the rest of the day, and instead, I moved on to the next project, and I applied this idea again. By the time I was finished with all of these mini accomplishments on over a dozen items that required my attention, I felt great. I had no fatigue, no mental drain, no need for a nap, and I actually felt really great. I felt as though I had conquered the world for the day. And, maybe most importantly, I felt relaxed and with no signs of stress anywhere.