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One Simple Strategy to Overcome Feeling Overwhelmed with Massive Todo List

How often have you felt completely overwhelmed by the daunting massive TODO list in front of you ? As an Indie Hacker this happens to me a lot.

Using the below simple strategy I have managed to learn SwiftUI, NextJS, Tailwind, ship a website, watchOS app and do social media marketing in 3 months while working on my 9-5 software job without getting burnt out.

Here goes the one strategy which has always worked beautifully well for me in overcoming feeling of overwhelm.

Have a "ONE THING" column in Asana, Notion or any other free project
management Software . This column will have one single micro task. Once that task is done I will move it to Done column. At any given time I am allowed to think, worry and work on only single micro task one single task. This helps me to stop worrying about other tasks in my todo list and deliver high quality output on one single task.

The idea behind this strategy was inspired by the book "The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results" by Gary Keller

Other Resources

  1. Countdown to Anything Widget. Add a single task to the widget with a deadline on phone homescreen
  2. On any Notes app create a checklist with only ONE item. Name the list "ONE THING". Check off that task once its done and replace it with new "ONE THING"
  3. Anti Todo List. E.g Not to worry about other tasks in my todo list

Please try out this strategy and let me know if you find it useful :)
Are there any strategies which you have found to reduce the feeling
of overwhelm from a massive todo list ?
Curious to Know!

posted to Icon for group Productivity
Productivity
on February 28, 2023
  1. 1

    What do you think is the key benefit of the "One Thing" strategy? Are there any downsides to this approach? What other strategies have you found to be effective for reducing feelings of overwhelm?

  2. 1

    Hey, this is great advice. Is something that I used to do too. I divide big problems into small ones, save these in a column on Trello and start to work individually. Definitely is recommended and allows you to not get overwhelmed with a ton of stuff to do.

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