My Journey from Overwhelm to Focus
Last year, my work demanded I juggle multiple projects simultaneously.
As a data platform engineer, I was managing API builds, system migrations, and dependency issues.
My daily schedule was a blur of meetings, problem-solving, and coding sessions that stretched late into the night.
On top of that, I was exploring side projects like building a website for software developer demographics and learning new skills in Vue.js.
The chaos wasn’t just professional.
My personal life mirrored this disarray — piled-up laundry, unread books, missing calls from my family and a bad breakup :(
Instead of feeling productive, I was feeling paralysed. The sheer number of things competing for my attention made me lose focus on what mattered most.
When I broke up, I wrote a lot that night.
The next day, while staring blankly at my endless to-do list, I realized something had to change.
Chaos was no longer something I could manage; it was consuming me.
The first thing I did was to take a step back.
It felt counter-intuitive at first — how could I afford to pause when there was so much to do?
But I understood that clarity required space, and I wasn’t giving myself any.
I took an afternoon off to sit quietly with a notebook.
I wrote down everything that was on my mind, from work-related tasks to personal worries.
Seeing it all on paper was both overwhelming and freeing. It allowed me to externalize the chaos and start making sense of it.
I then asked myself a crucial question: What is the one thing I need to focus on right now?
This one simple act of reflection helped me identify the priorities buried beneath the noise.
One by one, I was able to solve most of my issues. It definitely took time, but I fixed everything. Here’s another secret, btw.
In my daily life,
I decided to use the Eisenhower Method. I also have an article for the same. You can read it here.
In the words of my imaginary girlfriend,
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by chaos, remember this: clarity isn’t a destination, it’s a practice.
In case we are meeting for the first time, come over here, it’ll be worth the roller coaster of articles that are gonna come up in the next few weeks.