Introduction

Hello. Today, I want to write a short article about something I recently noticed while working. This is partly a note to myself, and partly a reminder.
Over the past few weeks, I had been feeling a little overwhelmed by everything I needed to do.
Every day, I had the feeling that things were not moving forward the way I wanted. When I looked back on the weekend, I found that many of the things I had expected to finish were still unfinished. But I could not clearly tell what the actual problem was.
I vaguely felt that I needed to change something, so I tried adjusting my task management, changing my schedule, and tweaking different parts of my workflow. But nothing really changed.

Looking Back, I Noticed the Real Problem

So the other day, I decided to take some time and look back at several days that had not gone well.
As I reviewed them, I noticed a common pattern. On those days, I had almost always added something unexpected to my schedule during the day. And the trigger was usually the moment when I felt that I was already slightly behind.
In other words, every time I felt behind, I was unconsciously trying to catch up.

When I think about it now, this was a reaction to stress. But in that moment, I did not feel like I was stressed at all.
“If I make some progress on this today, I can recover a little bit of the delay.”

When I thought that way and acted on it, it felt like a calm and realistic decision.

I did not think stress was driving my judgment. I thought I was simply looking at the situation and adjusting my plan rationally.

Looking back, it seems obvious. But in the moment, I did not notice it at all.

The Loop I Found

As I continued reflecting on it, I started to see a pattern.

I fall a little behind
↓
I think, “I should be able to catch up a little”
  ※ At this point, it feels like a rational decision
↓
The plan becomes unrealistic, so I either cannot finish it or the quality drops
↓
I fall further behind
↓
I feel stressed again

The problem was not just falling behind itself. The real issue was that the stress created after falling behind disguised itself as “rational judgment,” and I kept pushing myself without realizing it.

Why Putting It Into Words Helps

At first, I thought the way to break this loop was to become the kind of person who does not feel stressed when plans fall behind. But that is difficult to do in a short period of time.

What felt more realistic was to pause when I noticed the stress.

More specifically, to put it into words.

• “Maybe I am feeling stressed because I am behind.”

• “Is this really something I need to do today, or am I just trying to catch up?”

When you feel overwhelmed by too many tasks, “putting it into words” may not seem directly related to the problem. It does not reduce the number of tasks. It does not erase the delay.
But in this case, the problem was happening at the cognitive level. Stress was mixing into my judgment unconsciously. If that is the case, the intervention also needs to happen at the cognitive level.

Putting the feeling into words is a way to make the stress visible. Once it becomes visible, it becomes easier to notice when I am being pulled into it.

Conclusion

When things are not going well, I quickly start thinking, “I need to change my method.” But this time, I realized that the issue was one step before that.

I thought I was making decisions, but I was actually being moved by stress. Noticing that “I thought I was being rational” may be the turning point.
The next time I feel the same way, I want to first put into words what I am reacting to. That alone may help me act a little differently.

As a side note, the thing that helped me notice this stress was a conversation with Claude. I think the same thing could probably happen by talking to another person.
When I tried to explain the situation I was stuck in, I finally started to see what I had been reacting to. I wrote in this article that putting stress into words makes it visible, but in fact, the reason I started writing this article was that I had already experienced that process.
Depending on the AI tool and how you use it, talking to AI can be a relatively easy option when it feels hard to talk to someone else, or when your thoughts are too messy to organize on your own. If you ever feel similarly overwhelmed, you might try explaining the situation to an AI and checking whether stress has quietly mixed into your judgment or actions.

Thank you for reading.