When Everything Feels Like Too Much: Coping with Overwhelm and Decision Fatigue
For professionals and leaders, feeling overwhelmed can become so familiar that it starts to feel like part of the job.
There are emails waiting, decisions to make, meetings to prepare for, people who need your attention and problems that seem to require an immediate response. Even when you finally have a quiet moment, your mind may continue running through everything you haven't done yet.
Over time, this constant mental demand can lead to decision fatigue, that feeling of having so many choices, judgements and responsibilities competing for your attention that even relatively simple decisions begin to feel exhausting.
Feeling overwhelmed can hit when we feel as though we have too much to do, but also how we interpret those demands, respond to them and the thinking patterns that develop when our minds are under pressure.
When your brain starts treating everything as urgent
One of the most common experiences of overwhelm is the sense that everything needs dealing with now.
You might find yourself thinking:
“I can't switch off until everything is done.”
“I need to deal with this before I can focus on anything else.”
“If I don't make the right decision, there could be serious consequences.”
“Everyone is relying on me.”
These thoughts can feel completely reasonable, particularly when you're in a leadership role. But they can also create a cycle of pressure.
The more your brain perceives demands as urgent or threatening, the more difficult it becomes to prioritise calmly. You may move from one task to another, check your emails repeatedly, postpone difficult decisions or spend far too long thinking through relatively minor choices.
You become busier without necessarily becoming more effective.
Decision fatigue can be particularly frustrating for high-performing professionals because it can feel inconsistent with how capable you normally are. You may be perfectly comfortable making significant strategic decisions at work, yet find yourself unable to decide which email to answer first.
This doesn't necessarily mean you've become indecisive.
Your brain has a limited amount of attention and cognitive energy available. When you've spent the day making decisions, solving problems, managing competing priorities and considering the needs of other people, your capacity for further decision-making can become depleted.
This is one reason why small decisions can suddenly feel disproportionately difficult.
Instead of asking, “What's the best option?”, it can be more helpful to ask:
“Is this decision important enough to require this much mental energy?”
That small shift can be surprisingly powerful.
Notice the thinking patterns that fuel overwhelm
CBT encourages us to look at the relationship between our thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
When you're overwhelmed, certain thinking patterns can quietly make the situation feel even bigger.
You might experience all-or-nothing thinking:
“I need to get everything finished today.”
Or catastrophising:
“If I don't deal with this properly, everything could unravel.”
Or excessive responsibility:
“It's my job to make sure everyone is okay.”
You might also fall into the trap of mentally rehearsing every possible outcome before making a decision.
The difficulty is that thinking more doesn't always produce a better decision. Sometimes it simply produces more thinking.
Try noticing when your mind has moved from useful problem-solving into repetitive worry or rumination.
A useful question is:
“Am I solving a problem right now, or am I repeatedly thinking about the problem?”
If there is an action you can take, identify it.
If there isn't, continuing to analyse the situation may simply be keeping your nervous system in a state of alert.
Create a pause between demand and response
When we're overwhelmed, we often respond automatically.
An email arrives → we open it.
A colleague asks a question → we answer immediately.
Another problem appears → we add it to the mental list.
But you don't have to respond to every demand the moment it appears.
Creating small pauses throughout your day can help restore a sense of control.
Before responding, ask yourself:
Does this need my attention now?
Does this need me personally?
Does this need to be done today?
What is the most useful next step?
These questions help move you from reactive mode into intentional mode.
And that distinction matters enormously when you're responsible for other people.
Reduce the number of decisions you make
One of the simplest ways to reduce decision fatigue is to deliberately remove unnecessary decisions from your day.
This might mean having a regular structure for your mornings, setting specific times to check emails, using templates for recurring tasks or creating clear criteria for prioritising work.
For example, instead of repeatedly asking yourself “What should I do next?”, you might decide in advance that your priorities are:
- Urgent matters affecting people or safety.
- Important work that requires focused thinking.
- Routine administration.
- Everything else.
The goal is to save your cognitive energy for the decisions that genuinely deserve it.
Challenge the belief that you need to get everything right
For many professionals and leaders, overwhelm is closely connected to perfectionism.
If you believe every decision needs to be carefully considered, every piece of work needs to be excellent and every person needs to be supported perfectly, your workload becomes psychologically heavier than it needs to be.
CBT can help you examine these underlying beliefs.
Ask yourself:
“What would I expect from another competent professional in the same situation?”
You may discover that you are holding yourself to a standard you would never expect from anyone else.
Sometimes the healthier goal isn't perfect.
It's good enough, completed and sustainable.
Give your brain permission to stop
One of the most important skills for managing overwhelm is learning that stopping isn't the same as being unproductive.
If your mind has become accustomed to constantly scanning for the next problem, taking a break can initially feel uncomfortable.
You might sit down and immediately think about what you should be doing.
That's okay.
Rather than trying to force yourself not to think, notice the thought:
“I should be doing something.”
Then gently remind yourself:
“Rest is part of being effective, not evidence that I'm falling behind.”
Over time, creating genuine periods of mental downtime can become easier.
You don't have to carry every decision alone
Leadership can sometimes create the illusion that being responsible means having all the answers.
It doesn't.
Delegating isn't simply about reducing your workload. It can also reduce the number of decisions you need to hold in your head.
Sometimes the most effective leadership decision is:
“This doesn't need to be my decision.”
Learning to delegate, set boundaries and allow other people to take ownership can be uncomfortable, particularly if you're used to being the person who makes things happen.
But sustainable leadership requires more than personal capacity.
It requires shared capacity.
A more balanced approach to overwhelm
Feeling overwhelmed doesn't necessarily mean that you need to become more organised, more productive or more resilient.
Sometimes it means you need to change the relationship you have with demands.
Instead of asking:
“How can I fit everything in?”
try asking:
“What genuinely needs my attention?”
Instead of:
“How do I make the perfect decision?”
try:
“What is a reasonable decision based on the information I have today?”
And instead of:
“How do I keep going?”
consider:
“What would help me work in a way that is sustainable?”
Managing overwhelm recognises the thoughts and behaviours that amplify pressure, challenges unhelpful assumptions and develops a more balanced ways of responding.
You don't need to solve everything today.
Sometimes the most effective next step is simply to pause, identify what matters most and give yourself permission to deal with one thing at a time.
Amanda Hodgson specialises in CBT support for professionals experiencing work stress, leadership pressure, and perfectionism.
She offers CBT therapy both online and in person in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.
If imposter syndrome, perfectionism, or work stress is starting to take its toll, support is available.
You can learn more at:
www.clearmindscbt.co.uk
