I Had So Much to Do I Didn’t Know Where to Start So I Stopped Looking at My To-Do Lists

“I have so much to do I don’t know where to start.”

I know that feeling incredibly well. There can be dozens of things that need doing, some important, some urgent and some that would only take five minutes. Logically, having lots to do should make me get on with it. Instead, sometimes I find myself doing absolutely nothing.

The strange thing is that the problem usually isn’t that I don’t know how to do the things that need doing. The problem is that there’s too much of it competing for my attention at the same time, and that’s when overwhelm kicks in.

Why does having too much to do make it harder to start?

When I have a lot to do, my brain immediately starts trying to work out the best order. Which thing is most important? Should I get the quick things out of the way first? What about the thing that’s urgent? Before I do that, should I do something else?

Before long, I’m spending more time deciding what to do than actually doing anything.

I’ve always made to-do lists, but I’ve realised that when I’m already feeling overwhelmed, a long list can actually make things worse. I can see everything at once, which means I’m constantly making decisions about what deserves my attention. I might start with an easy task, notice something else halfway through, switch to that instead and end the day feeling as though I’ve been busy without actually getting anywhere.

And that assumes I’ve managed to get everything onto the list in the first place.

What I do when overwhelm takes over and I don’t know where to start

This is one of the reasons I built Faffalot. When I’m thinking, “I have so much to do I don’t know where to start,” that feeling of overwhelm isn’t just because I have a long to-do list. The truth is, I couldn’t even tell you everything I need to do.

There are probably at least 30 things, but they’re not sitting neatly on a list. They’re flying around my head. I’ll suddenly remember that I need to reply to an email while I’m emptying the dishwasher. I’ll remember something I need for work while I’m in the shower. I’ll realise I need to pay something while I’m driving. Then, by the time I’m actually in a position to do it, the thought has disappeared completely. Later, it pops back into my head at another completely useless moment.

That’s a huge part of overwhelm for me. It’s not looking at a list of 30 clearly defined jobs and wondering which one to choose. It’s knowing there are probably 30 or more things I need to do, while not even being able to remember what half of them are.

So when I say “I have so much to do I don’t know where to start,” I mean it quite literally. I don’t know where to start, I don’t know everything that needs doing, and I’ve got that horrible nagging feeling that I’ve forgotten something important.

With Faffalot, I can get things out of my head when they occur to me. Then, when I actually want to get things done, I don’t have to hold everything in my head or keep deciding between dozens of competing tasks.

I only need to deal with one thing at a time.

If Faffalot shows me “Empty the dishwasher,” that’s what I do. I don’t need to think about the email, the washing, the bill I suddenly remembered yesterday or everything else waiting for me. They’ll still be there when I get to them.

What if even the first task feels too big?

Sometimes “empty the dishwasher” is perfectly manageable. Other times, even a fairly ordinary task can feel enormous when I’m already dealing with overwhelm. That’s when I make the first step smaller.

Instead of “tidy the kitchen”, I might start with “put the mugs in the dishwasher”. Instead of “sort the paperwork”, the first step might be “put all the paperwork on the table”. Instead of “get ready for work”, it might simply be “put my shoes on”.

The first step doesn’t have to be impressive. It just has to be small enough that I’ll actually do it. Once I’ve done that first tiny thing, something has changed: I’ve started. I’m no longer sitting there trying to persuade myself to begin. I’m already doing it, and the next step often feels much easier.

I don’t need to get motivated first

This has been one of the biggest changes for me. I used to think I needed to get myself into the right frame of mind before I could start. I’d wait to feel motivated, try to talk myself into doing something or tell myself that I really should get on with it.

Now I try to make the decision smaller instead.

When my brain is saying, “I have so much to do I don’t know where to start,” Faffalot effectively answers the question for me. I don’t need to do everything. I only need to do the thing that’s currently on the screen. When that’s finished, I move on to the next one.

It sounds almost ridiculously simple, but that’s precisely why it works for me.

Why organising my to-do list doesn’t solve my overwhelm

There are some brilliant productivity systems out there. The problem is that as soon as colour coding and sorting things into groups is involved, I’m going to spend two hours doing that — not twenty minutes.

And I’ll probably feel really accomplished afterwards. I’ll have categories. I’ll have priorities. Everything will be beautifully organised. I may even have selected the perfect shade of green for tasks that are “important but not urgent”.

There will just be one small problem: I won’t actually have completed a single task.

That’s exactly what I didn’t need. I didn’t need a better way to organise all the things I wasn’t doing. I needed something that would stop me organising, stop me choosing and just give me one thing to do next.

That’s why I deliberately kept Faffalot simple. Its job isn’t to give me another productivity system to maintain. Its job is to get me doing the things I already know I need to do.

If you’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start

If you’re sitting there thinking, “I have so much to do I don’t know where to start,” try making the problem much smaller. Instead of asking yourself how you’re going to get everything done, ask yourself what one tiny thing you could do right now.

If that still feels too difficult, make the step smaller again. “Clean the kitchen” can become “put the dirty mugs by the sink”. “Sort my finances” can become “open the banking app”. “Get ready to go out” can become “find my shoes”.

Then do that one thing before worrying about everything else.

For me, reducing overwhelm isn’t about creating the perfect organised to-do list. In fact, give me colour coding and categories and I’ll happily spend two hours organising the list and feel extremely productive without actually completing a single task.

I needed something different. I needed somewhere to dump all those thoughts when they appeared, and then a way of shutting out the noise and dealing with one thing at a time.

That’s the idea behind Faffalot. I built it because I needed something that could take all those things flying around my head and turn them into one manageable next step at a time.

When I’m dealing with overwhelm, seeing everything doesn’t help me get started. Seeing one thing I can do now does.

Faffalot is a simple step-by-step app for those moments when you know you need to do things, but you just can’t seem to get started.