Dr.Celia
00:01 – 00:22
Do you ever get a pocket of time and just stare at your screen? You know you have like 37 tabs open, literally and mentally, but your brain can’t decide which one needs your attention first. You got the time, maybe even like a whole hour, but suddenly everything feels equally urgent and important. That’s not procrastination.
Dr.Celia
00:22 – 00:30
That’s not even poor time management. That’s overwhelm. And it’s silently hijacking your schedule. So here’s the thing about overwhelm.
Dr.Celia
00:30 – 00:42
It’s not just about having too much to do. It’s about the swirling feeling in your brain when everything feels equally urgent and important. Like, should you respond to that DM first? Or work on your content calendar?
Dr.Celia
00:42 – 01:07
Or maybe finally organize your Google Drive? Or just give up and scroll on Instagram because making any decision feels impossible? Welcome to Week 2 of the Emotion Behind Your Schedule series. Today we’ll be diving into why overwhelm isn’t just about having too much to do, it’s about how your brain processes competing priorities, and more importantly, what to actually do when everything feels equally urgent.
Dr.Celia
01:08 – 01:38
By the end of the episode, you’re going to understand what’s really happening in your brain during these moments and how to finally break free from the mental traffic jam. Let me paint you a picture of what overwhelm really looks like because sometimes we don’t even recognize it in ourselves. You know you’re deep in overwhelm when you find yourself doing things like opening your calendar to schedule something important and then get completely sidetracked reorganizing your entire week instead. Or you’re like spending 45 minutes deciding what tasks to tackle first only to realize you used up your only free block of time.
Dr.Celia
01:39 – 01:56
And this is like my personal favorite creating the most beautiful color-coded planning system ever that you’re definitely going to start using tomorrow. I had this moment actually last week in the kitchen like it was 2 p.m. and I had this like rare pocket of time where my son was still napping. I grabbed my laptop.
Dr.Celia
01:56 – 02:27
I was ready to tackle this big project that I’ve been putting off and I even had like my coffee fresh and hot which is itself a miracle. But instead of diving in, I found myself standing at the kitchen counter, just staring at my screen, completely frozen. Like, my to-do list was right there, the project was literally open on my desktop, but my brain kept jumping between, I should work on this project, and, but first I need to respond to those emails, and, wait, didn’t I promise someone I’ll review their podcast? And like, then, oh, I should probably be starting dinner prep soon.
Dr.Celia
02:28 – 02:59
so like 20 minutes later my coffee was cold and I accomplished exactly nothing and that’s when it hit me like this wasn’t about poor time management or lack of focus my brain was literally trying to process and prioritize every single task commitment and responsibility all at once like running every program on your computer simultaneously like eventually just everything freezes on your computer And that’s what overwhelm does. It masquerades as indecision, as procrastination, as poor focus. But really, it’s just your brain’s way of trying to handle too many competing priorities at once.
Dr.Celia
03:02 – 03:13
So this is what’s actually happening in your brain during these moments. And no, you’re not bad at time management. So I want you to think of your brain kind of like your phone. Like when you got like too many apps running in the background, what happens?
Dr.Celia
03:13 – 03:21
Everything starts to lag. Like the screen freezes. Simple tasks take forever to load up. And that’s exactly what’s happening in your mind when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Dr.Celia
03:22 – 03:31
But this is where it gets really interesting. Inside your brain, there’s this tiny almond-shaped structure called the amygdala. It’s kind of like your brain security guard. It’s always on the lookout for threats.
Dr.Celia
03:32 – 03:56
And the thing is, it can’t really tell the difference between looming work deadline or stubbing your toe. To the amygdala, stress is stress. And this plays out differently for different types of mom business owners that I see. So if you’re like a high achiever, maybe coming from corporate, teaching or healthcare, or any other profession, your security guard in you is constantly comparing your current capacity to what you used to accomplish.
Dr.Celia
03:57 – 04:19
Like that disconnect between your proven abilities and your new toddler-paced reality, that’s setting off major alarm bells. And for the mom business owner building her business while working her nine to five, your security guard is pulling triple duty. It’s like scanning for threats in employee mode, mom mode and CEO mode. It’s like running three different operating systems at once and your brain never gets any true downtime.
Dr.Celia
04:20 – 05:04
And what if you’re like what I call the service heart soulpreneur, like your security guard is working overtime watching for ways you might be letting somebody down, like taking on every client emergency as your own, answering DMs in the middle of the night, feeling personally responsible for everyone’s success. So when you’re trying to process that client project that’s due next week, or a doctor’s appointment you need to schedule, or an email you haven’t responded to, or an Instagram story you should be planning, or even dinner that you need to figure out, or even the conversation you had yesterday that didn’t feel right, your brain is treating each one of these like a potential threat and this is the kicker like all that stress accumulates like your brain is a jug and each worry each task each decision just adds another drop and when that jug gets
Dr.Celia
05:04 – 05:37
too full even the smallest things like a delayed text message or a long grocery line can feel like a tidal wave And meanwhile, the part of the brain that’s responsible for rational thinking, your prefrontal cortex, is getting hijacked. It’s kind of like your brain CEO, which is the prefrontal cortex, has left the building and leaving that panicky security guard, which is the medulla, in charge of all the decisions. And this isn’t just about having too much to do. It’s about your brain trying to protect you from what it perceives as multiple threats, all while making a thousand decisions every day.
Dr.Celia
05:38 – 06:11
By the time you get to that pocket of time you want to work through, your brain is already exhausted from running its threat detection program into like overdrive. So that’s why you end up like finding yourself staring at a screen, reorganizing your calendar for the fifth time, or suddenly deciding your entire business strategy needs an overhaul. Because it’s not a productivity problem, it’s your brain’s natural response to chronic stress of mom life and business, decision fatigue, and your capacity running on empty. So you’re probably listening to this and thinking like, okay, great, Dr. Celia, my brain’s just basically an overloaded phone with a panicky security guard in charge.
Dr.Celia
06:12 – 06:30
That’s super helpful. But I just want to let you know that there is good news. Like once you understand what’s happening up there, like in your mind, you can do something about it. So now that we know what type of overwhelm we’re dealing with, let’s talk about how to get your brain back online, no matter what category you fall into.
Dr.Celia
06:30 – 06:53
Whether it’s you’re trying to squeeze in a corporate-sized workload into nap time, juggle a side hustle with your 9-to-5, or even saying yes to a client request at midnight, your brain still needs the same basic reset. So here are four strategies that work for every type of overwhelmed mom business owner. Strategy number one is the oxygen reset. This isn’t just some take a deep breath woo woo advice.
Dr.Celia
06:53 – 07:08
When you’re overwhelmed your brain literally isn’t getting enough oxygen. It’s too busy running on that threat level detection program. So taking a deep breath is like hitting the reset button on your nervous system. It tells that panicky security guard like hey if we could breathe we’re probably not dying.
Dr.Celia
07:10 – 07:20
Strategy number two is the brain drop. Get everything out of your head and onto paper. Remember that overloaded phone analogy? It’s like closing all those background apps all at once.
Dr.Celia
07:21 – 07:44
Don’t organize, don’t prioritize, just dump it all. All the client work, the doctor’s appointment, the weird things that keep you up at 3 a.m. Your brain doesn’t categorize threats and neither should you. Strategy number three is the small win system which is like this is where like the brain science gets really cool like when you’re staring at your brain dump thinking like oh my gosh this is impossible like your amygdala is in like full panic mode and you’re just like
Dr.Celia
07:44 – 08:13
I don’t know what to do but here’s a hack break everything down into tiny steps like ridiculously tiny because every time you complete even the smallest task your brain releases dopamine that feel-good chemical that says like hey we’re making progress and it’s like turning down the volume on that security alarm one click at a time so your brain is feeling more and more at ease at what you’re doing. So strategy number four is a second brain solution. Your brain was not designed to hold all the things.
Dr.Celia
08:13 – 08:33
Like it’s trying to like run a complex software on like an old phone, like eventually it’s going to crash. And this is where creating a second brain comes in, like a system outside your head where you can store all these tasks and ideas. Like you can use chat GPT, you can use your notes app or whatever works for you. The key is to have like a trusted system so your actual brain can stop trying to be like a storage unit.
Dr.Celia
08:35 – 09:08
and this is what it looks like in like real life like I’m going to give an example of my life where this recently happened so yesterday my to-do list was longer than my like son’s reason of like why he needs to play instead of like eating which has been a thing um like I could feel my brain starting to freeze up on like what I needed to do with my to-do list so I took a deep breath which was strategy one I dumped everything onto paper, which is strategy two. I broke my biggest project into baby steps, which is like strategy three. And then I put all the someday ideas in my second brain system, which is like strategy four.
Dr.Celia
09:09 – 09:17
And did I get everything done? No. But my actual brain stopped treating everything like a five alarm fire. And that’s really the goal.
Dr.Celia
09:17 – 09:29
Not like perfect productivity, but your brain to feel safe enough to focus on what you need to do. So he’s like, here’s the thing about overwhelm. It’s not a productivity problem. It’s just like a brain magic challenge.
Dr.Celia
09:29 – 09:54
And now that you understand what’s actually happening up there, like, hello, overworked security guard in my amygdala. you could start working with your brain instead of against it. Like whether you’re a high tier, trying to fit your big vision into a taller size time blocks, or like a mom business owner running multiple operating systems at once, or even like a service heart solopreneur whose brain is always on client alert, like these strategies can help get your mental CPU back online.
Dr.Celia
09:56 – 10:12
And remember, your brain is not broken, and you’re not doing business wrong. It’s basically trying to run like Netflix, Zoom, and Canva all at once on like a flip phone, which, you know, is kind of impossible. The goal is not to have like your apps crash. Like, let’s be real, we’re running a business while raising our kids.
Dr.Celia
10:12 – 10:27
The goal is to have a reset button that actually works. So start with one strategy today. Take that oxygen reset, do the brain dump, break down one task into tiny steps, and set up your second brain system. Your actual brain will thank you.
Dr.Celia
10:28 – 10:53
Speaking of working with your brain instead of against it, like, ever wonder why some mom business owners seem to handle overwhelm with ease while you’re struggling to make the usual calm down strategies work for you? In just two minutes, discover your unique way of managing your mental bandwidth that works with your personality, not against it. Like, no more forcing yourself into someone else’s system. Find out exactly how your brain is wired to handle stress and overwhelm in your business and mom life.
Dr.Celia
10:54 – 11:22
The link is in the show notes and the link is titled. What is your biz mom time hacking superpower? And coming up next week in episode 3, we’re gonna drive into the emotion frustration Like, you know that feeling where you’re doing all the things but your business is not growing as fast as you would like We’re gonna explore why your brain interprets slow growth as danger and what to do when your amygdala starts comparing your chapter 1 to somebody else’s like chapter 20 Thank you so much for listening to this episode and I’ll catch you next week
