Something I have noticed about how my brain works, and it’s not conducive to being productive either.
Many times, when I feel overwhelmed by the many things I need to do, or complete, it’s not all that overwhelming to start with.
My brain figures I have x number of things to do, and I need to do them all now!!
I have tried to rank items according to importance, or urgency, but it doesn’t seem to help one jot.
I have discussed similar topics with my therapist in the past. It does appear that my mind focuses on the outcome, rather than the process.
People who tend towards being anxious are more focused on the outcome. The one thing we have no control over. The only thing we do have control over is the process.
This could also be related to the way that we were taught at school. The only factor of any importance was getting an A on the final exam. Whatever process you followed to get that A was unimportant. We were taught to focus on that outcome.
The final four years I did attend any sort of “traditional” school we had to set daily goals. For each subject that we had chosen, we had to set a goal of completing a certain number of pages. This goal chart was in our faces the whole time. Not completing the goals meant taking work home to finish before the next day.
This again leads to being outcomes oriented. Finish those things today. Finish them now. Not finishing them now meant being punished. Not finishing them now meant less leisure time later.
Focus on the process, not the outcome.