Ask HN: How to regain focus when you feel overwhelmed?
When I get overwhelmed I can sometimes see what needs to be done but the effort to do what I know needs done seems like &#x27;so much&#x27;. Sometimes I know I can &#x27;spin up&#x27; my efforts enough to get it done.. but for some reason I have this judgement that spinning up that much effort &quot;isn&#x27;t worth it&quot;. Which is pretty silly.. I&#x27;m sitting here miserable with the ability to end it but yet still think that putting effort into my own success is somehow not worth it. Pretty telling.<p>So what I do is accept that its going to take a lot of effort -- and that effort is worth it!<p>Then I just have to get tactical about it. I have to use the skills and advice I&#x27;ve learned works.<p>1. Get momentum going early in the morning. I know.. everyone knows this. The thing is, it works. Just do 1 tiny little thing while I&#x27;m having my first cup of coffee. I use my Notes.app between my phone and mac, and I have a &#x27;Daily &amp; Affirmations&#x27; note that is pinned to the top of my list. In the &#x27;Daily&#x27; section is a list of tiny tasks that need to be done that I&#x27;ve identified (I try to find these as I go through the day and throw them here so I can do something simple but useful the next morning.. setting my future self up for success). In the &#x27;Affirmations&#x27; section I basically just remind myself that all of this is worth it. That living a life of freedom and peace is worth heroic effort. This is just a dragon that needs slaying (or whatever narrative works for you).<p>2. Chunk down. Again.. nothing ground breaking here.. but it works. Break big problems into small problems and small problems into smaller tasks. Then accept it may take me 2-3 weeks to get this all the way done.. but that progress builds and I get better and faster over time.. but even if I don&#x27;t, that&#x27;s ok. I&#x27;m making progress and that progress makes me feel better every day.<p>3. Hire people. You sound like you have some money now, maybe for the first time? If so, your stress is partly from the fact you are playing a bigger game but you are playing it according to rules of the small game you came from. Its time to update your game. Seriously, this isn&#x27;t a trope. Find a good tax guy that responds to you in a timely manner. Hire a book keeper that will get all of your books in order and keep them that way. Hire a house keeper twice a month to clean your place. It really has a big impact on mental health. Money is a resource that you aren&#x27;t using and its using you, to your detriment.<p>4. Sometimes more money isn&#x27;t worth more stress. Brainstorm ways of getting some of your high stress money into lower stress areas and ACCEPT that you may end up with less money. If&#x2F;when crypto makes new ATHs you&#x27;ll probably kick yourself you didn&#x27;t sell everything and buy more at the bottom.. and you&#x27;ll forget just how incredibly miserable you were with what you did have at the bottom. Optimize for quality of life, not some number in a bank account.<p>FWIW I&#x27;ve been heavy in crypto since 2014 and haven&#x27;t cashed out at any of the tops and rode them all the way down and all the way back up.. 3 times now. Fucking sucks ass to &quot;lose&quot; your entire net worth. Jesse Livermore was a famous billionaire solo trader in the 1930s and he had a phrase &quot;sell to the sleeping point&quot;. Sell your shit down to the point you can sleep well at a night, anything more isn&#x27;t worth any amount of money.