Overwhelmed by All The Things You Have to Do.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and discouraged with the responsibilities of all the things you have to do? School expectations — Work expectations — Family expectations and on and on…

It can feel like you just don’t have the time or energy to do all the things required of you. You try to get organized — you try to stay focused — to stay motivated, but far too often you are struggling to keep up — struggling to do it all.

If its an encouragement to you, I want you to know that you are not alone in that — I have been there — I have been in that exact same situation.

You see all through out school (elementary school, middle school, high school and college) I had significant struggles in my academics. I used to be one of the students who would thank God if I got a C on an assignment, but all too often I didn’t even get that.

It was so bad, that after I completed 5th grade, my parents made the decision to have me do that entire year over again.

High School wasn’t any better — in my senior year the school was threatening to hold my diploma and keep me from graduating if I didn’t get my grades up.

As I rolled into my college years, nothing changed. My grades were embarrassing. I had to take entire classes over again because my grades were so low. At one point, my parents pulled me out of school for an entire semester, hoping that it might motivate me to work harder on school when I returned. Unfortunately it didn’t.

By the end of my college career, I was taking random, extra classes that were supposed to be an “easy A” just to pull my overall GPA up to a passing level. I was overwhelmed throughout out my entire school career — I was discouraged — I was unmotivated — I was disorganized. I barely made it through. But I did, eventually, make it through.

As I got older, and the problems of my youth continued into adulthood, I began to consume everything I could about personal development and productivity. I read books, listened to blogs, attended conferences and seminars and watched youtube videos — all in an attempt to better myself. And ya know what? It worked.

I even went on to get my masters degree — which was something I never thought I would do. And, not to brag, but rather to tell you how this part of the story ended, I earned all A’s and B’s in the process.

As I was thinking about all of the incredible resources that I have read and watched over the years related to personal development and productivity, there is one that sticks out the most. It’s the 2019 book by James Clear called Atomic Habits.

I wish I had this book when I was going through school.

A big part of the reason I did so poorly in school is because I had dozens of poor habits and very few good habits. I wish that I had understood that my habits directly related to the level of success I was going to have. I can’t recommend this book enough.

As a result of my story, can I encourage you to not give up?

To work through the overwhelm.

To fight for your finish.

It will be worth it in the end.

- Arthur (The Productive Student Academy)