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Squiggly Careers
The First Thing to Do When Work Gets Too Much
⏱ 4 min video · 2 min read6 May 2026
TL;DR
Sarah from Squiggly Careers shares three practical strategies she personally used during an overwhelming week at work. The advice covers signaling to teammates early, clearing mental clutter onto paper, and deliberately choosing where good enough is acceptable versus where excellence is required.
Key points
1
Signal early to people around you that you are overwhelmed, and specifically tell them how they can help — whether that is support, a sounding board, or solutions.
2
Empty your head onto paper without worrying about order or structure — the goal is to stop holding everything mentally and reduce repeated anxious thoughts.
3
Identify the one or two tasks that truly require great work, and consciously accept that good enough is fine for everything else during a high-pressure period.
4
Accepting imperfection across lower-priority tasks conserves energy for what matters most and prevents the week from becoming genuinely unhealthy stress.
5
Squiggly Careers podcast episode 199 covers overwhelm at work in more depth for those who experience this beyond a one-off week.
Actionable insights
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In your next team meeting or with your manager, name the feeling of overwhelm out loud and follow it immediately with a specific request — support, solutions, or just someone checking in.
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Before your workday starts during a heavy week, spend five minutes writing every worry, task, and thought onto paper with no structure or filtering to free up mental bandwidth.
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Write out everything you need to deliver this week, then mark a maximum of two items as must-be-great and deliberately lower your standard expectation for the rest.
Notable quotes
“I can not do all of these things to exactly the same quality. Now that might feel uncomfortable to say out loud. It definitely does for me.”
“As long as I am trying hard, good enough is great in this situation. That is fine.”
“It happens to all of us. It happens to kind of the best of us.”
Worth watching?
⏭️
Worth watching the full video?
The full value is captured here — skip the video unless you want the conversational tone, which some find motivating during a stressful week.
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