This morning I had a ton of work to do, and I felt the anxiety building, the moment I woke up and started thinking about all that work. Instead of getting moving, I watched my anxiety. It’s an interesting feeling of rising panic, of adrenaline shooting from my chest outward. My mind was racing, my heart was beating fast. This happens to me from time to time — I feel like I have so much to do, and I start to worry. I’ve learned to deal with it, so that while it still comes up, I now have trust that I’ll be fine. And that, in turn, helps it to go away sooner. So what do you do when you’re overwhelmed and have a crapload of work to do? Here are the practices that work for me. I offer them to you in hopes that they’ll help you. 1. Trust in the moment. Anxiety is usually a fear (or a bunch of fears) about the future, which is pretty normal. But what this really is … is a lack of trust in the future. We don’t trust that things will work out. And what I’ve found, in my experimenting, is that this is really a lack of trust in the present. If the present isn’t good enough, if we aren’t good enough here in the present, then things will fail in the future. But I’ve learned that actually, nothing really bad will happen to me in the future if I act consistent with my principles here in the present. So I trust the present moment, and trust that things will work out. Try this: look at the moment you’re in. Look around you, look inward at yourself. Basically, this moment is fine. If it weren’t, you’d probably be in an ambulance instead of reading a Zen Habits post. If this moment is fine, the next one will probably be too. And the one after. We tend to imagine horrible future moments when it doesn’t really happen. 2. Meditate for a few minutes. Ironically, when we have a lot of work to do, the best thing isn’t necessarily to rush off and start working. I’ve found that taking a few minutes to meditate really helps bring me back to the moment, which turns out to be a great moment. Instead of keeping my eyes on the future all the time, I can check in with this moment, check in with myself and my breath, and this centers me to be calm in my tasks. Just sit still for 3 minutes, and pay attention to the breath, to your body, to the sounds around you. Keep coming back to these things in the present when your mind wanders. 3. Make a short list. With a lot of work to do, it can be overwhelming. But honestly I’ve found that I can’t do everything at once. I can’t even do two things at once. I can only focus on one thing at a time (though I can ineffectively switch back and forth between 2 or more things). So I should focus on the most important. The best way to do this is to make a short list of the most important things I have to do. What will make the most difference today? Not just the semi-urgent emails, but the tasks that mean the most to my life and career. This tends to be about 3 things per day, though go ahead and write down 5 things if you can’t limit it to 3. This list is what I focus on first. I can get to the small things later. 4. Single-task. I work most effectively when I pick one important task and really focus on it. When I switch constantly between a bunch of tasks, I tend not to make a lot of progress. And the important tasks get pushed back, because they need more focus than the constant switching allows for. And the constant switching feels productive, even if it means you’re only doing little things and not the big things. So instead, I focus on one big task, and I give it my full attention. Sometimes other things will interrupt my attention, and that’s OK if it can’t be avoided. You can’t control every moment (or any moment perhaps). But to the best of my ability, I stay with the present task instead of allowing myself to constantly switch. 5. Set intentions. When I