Build A Life Dashboard: 3 Easy Steps to Beat Overwhelm

Here’s what I’ve realized—when every part of your life is active, it’s easy to feel buried. We wear all these hats, and under each hat there are projects, goals, tasks, responsibilities. No wonder it feels like a lot.

This is the simple system I use to get a bird’s-eye view, set real priorities, and stop beating myself up—so you can finally breathe again.

Why Everything Feels Urgent (and Nothing Moves Forward)

Let’s talk about something we all face, especially when we’re managing multiple domains in our lives. When I say “domains,” I’m talking about the main areas of your life.

For example, I’m a single parent, so I have my parenting and family domain. Then I have my health and fitness domain, my happiness domain, my work domain, and my business domain. I’m also acting as a fiduciary for my parents, so I have a fiduciary domain as well. I include home management and finance too.

Under each domain, we have projects, goals, and tasks. My son has his own projects we’re working on together, like him passing math or schoolwork. I have work, business, fiduciary projects, etc. Each one with it’s own goal and even one-off tasks.

You start to see why it’s so easy to get overwhelmed. The more domains you have in your life, the more demands are placed on you.

And when that overwhelm hits, we retreat. Retreating can show up in different ways. If work feels good, we hide in it to get those dopamine hits from checking boxes. Or we procrastinate—reading, researching, doing chores that feel “productive” but don’t actually move the needle.

If you’ve ever looked at your week and thought, what am I even doing? you’re not alone. The first step is building awareness of your actual actions. How are you spending your time? What thoughts are you having? Do you end the day feeling accomplished—or frustrated that it slipped away again?

Balance Isn’t Equal Time. It’s Energy Management (and Seasons Matter)

One of the biggest misconceptions about “balance” is that it means spending time equally in each area of your life. That’s not what balance is. Balance is really about energy management—how you distribute your energy across domains in a way that keeps you fulfilled and steady while you move toward your goals.

We also have seasons. I took on fiduciary responsibility for my parents, and while I was setting up that system, there was a significant time demand there. In another area, things were quieter. Seasons shift. Energy shifts. Your plan should honor that.

Then there are expectations. I used to set extremely high expectations and get angry with myself for not meeting them—even when they were completely unrealistic. If you want to fail at things, set impossible expectations and then punish yourself for not meeting them.

I shifted out of expectations and into goals. I look at the ideal state and then what’s reasonable today. I expect imperfection because that’s the reality of life.

“I choose to” is the language I use now. It takes the weight off and brings me back to what matters. That small shift might sound simple, but it’s powerful—it helps transform your mindset from pressure to choice.

The Life Domain Dashboard: Identify → Gain Clarity → Execute (and Celebrate)

When overwhelm happens, it’s usually because we have too many responsibilities across multiple domains—and no clear view of where our priorities actually lie. Everything feels like a priority. So we end up chasing everyone else’s instead of managing our own.

Here’s what helps: a simple, streamlined life domain dashboard. It gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything, helps you decide what’s actually important, and keeps you from retreating.

Step 1: Identify (brain dump by domain).

Get everything out of your head. If you have a million things on your mind, write them down—no matter how small or crazy they seem. Start by listing your domains: parenting/family, health and fitness, happiness, work, business, fiduciary, home management, finance (and yes, charitable contributions if that’s part of your life).

Under each domain, brain dump your projects, goals, and tasks. You can include scheduled items too—meetings, appointments, deadlines. The goal is to see all the things that are occupying your thoughts.

Step 2: Gain Clarity (make priorities visible).

For each domain, pick one to three top tasks. Not ten—just one to three. If you have a long list, highlight what matters most this week. Note any time you’ve already committed.

Here’s the reframe: shift from “I have to” or “I need to” into “I want to” or “I choose to.” It immediately lightens the mental load and brings ownership back to you.

Step 3: Execute (track, adjust, and celebrate).

My weekly priorities usually come down to about three to four things across multiple areas. Every day, I list my goals and track my projects. I use my Daily Grind Planning System because I love the ritual of writing my goals daily.

By the end of the week, I ask, what will make me feel most accomplished? Those become the three to five things I focus on. Each day, I track my wins toward those goals.

Execution also means knowing the difference between urgent and important. Urgent tasks are the ones that pop up—calls, deadlines, immediate requests. Important tasks move the needle on your goals. Both matter, but if important tasks never get time, you end up living by other people’s priorities.

And please—build in celebration. Celebrating small wins doesn’t have to be a big production. Watch a YouTube video. Read for fifteen minutes. Take a walk around the block. Sit outside and do nothing for five minutes. These tiny resets remind you, I did this. That mindset matters.

Tools I Use (Keep It Simple).

I use Asana as my one-stop shop for projects and tasks. Google tasks for my one-offs and emails that require actions. Notion is my second brain, and it syncs with Asana so everything lands in one place. I use paper to consolidate priorities—my Daily Grind planner for writing goals and tracking progress. Digital or paper doesn’t matter. Consistency does.

Delegate, Delete, or Delay (Because You’re Not a Superhero, Even When Others Say You Are).

Some things can—and should—be outsourced. In my home domain, I delegate grocery shopping, landscaping, and housekeeping. My son helps with lunch, laundry, and his own room.

At work, we delegate across the team. I lean into my strengths and hire out where I’m not as skilled. I have a VA to free up capacity in my business. In health, I delegate to a trainer or a workout program. Show up, press play, move.

If a task doesn’t fit your life design right now, it might belong on a “someday” list—or maybe it’s time to delete it altogether. That’s how you keep things streamlined instead of clunky.

Anchor Your Dashboard to Your Life Vision.

Your goals in each domain should align with your overall life vision—your life design. Do you want to work in an office? From home? Forty hours? Twenty-five? Do you want more hiking days? That vision guides priorities.

If you’re not sure what you want, start with what you don’t want—and flip it. Then set goals that serve the life you’re actually building.

Know Your Priority Order.

My top priority is health and happiness. If I’m not healthy and happy, I can’t do anything. The second is relationships. The last is work and career.

And yes, I will decline meetings in favor of the gym. When priorities conflict, I weigh urgency and importance against that order. Small shifts create big results, and choosing based on your values—rather than urgency—changes everything.

A 20-Minute Reset to Beat Overwhelm Today

1. Five-minute domain dump. Write your domains down the left side of a page: parenting/family, health & fitness, happiness, work, business, fiduciary, home, finance, charitable—whatever applies.
2. Ten-minute task sweep. Under each domain, list projects and tasks that are loud in your head. Add any scheduled items already on your calendar.
3. Five-minute focus pick. Circle one to three top tasks total for the week. Not per domain—total. Mark them with “I choose to” statements:
   • “I choose to email the CPA by Wednesday.”
   • “I choose to schedule two workouts.”
   • “I choose to review my son’s math plan.”

Optional: Add a tiny nightly recap—what went well, what didn’t, and what I’ll adjust tomorrow. It takes three minutes and keeps you out of retreat mode.

Before You Close This Tab… Choose Your Next Right Move

Overwhelm feeds on fog. Clarity shrinks it. Identify, gain clarity, execute, and celebrate. Give yourself self-compassion. Remember, balance is energy management—and seasons change.

If something keeps weighing on you week after week, it’s either a priority—or it’s on the wrong ladder. Reassess.

Two simple next steps:

• Reflection: Which domain needs your compassion this week—and what’s one “I choose to” task you’ll complete?

• Resource: Not sure where your biggest business blockage is? Take the Bottleneck Quiz to spot your #1 bottleneck so you know exactly what to tackle first.

You wouldn’t expect someone else to do everything you’re doing. Offer yourself the same grace—and then choose the next small step that moves your life forward.