Ask HN: How to regain focus when you feel overwhelmed?

I'm naturally a pretty anxious person. I can't give you business advice but I can give you advice on stress.

I like to do things that help me control my anxiety. There are two relatively simple things you can do that will noticeably relax you. Sauna use and wim hof breathing. Going to the sauna regularly (I started 1/week but now do 5/week) relaxes me and triggers heat shock proteins that reduce depression[1]. Wim hof breathing centers me and and significantly reduces my anxiety.

I actually like to do 4 things all together; sauna, cold showers, exercise, and wim hof breathing exercises. When I do all 4 my stress is almost non existent. Things can bother me-- I'm not super human-- but I'm able to handle stress much more effectively to the point that it's almost never an issue. If you are willing to, you can try doing it all.

These won't solve all your problems. They are simply tools to use. Ultimately you can't control the world, but you can control how you respond to it.

[1]https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1603014\*

Sounds like you need a vacation.

The funny part is, that it kind of tend to get worse during vacations. Not a psychologist, but guess when I try to work hard and focused, all the "pending" stuff is suppressed. On vacations in comes, I'm more relaxed, and it comes out.

Looks like you're trying to get all of these done at the same time. Choose one task that you feel like working on the most.

Now keep taking baby-steps to gradually build momentum.

Try not to worry about the completion. keep switching tasks whenever you feel overwhelmed.