Feeling overwhelmed
Too much at once
There is more to do than there is time or room for, and it has stopped being a list and become a weather. You are not doing any one thing badly. You are doing all of them at once, in your head, and none of them on the desk.
Marcus ran an empire and a war and wrote these notes at night in a camp. The passages on this are practical, and they cut the same way three times: make it smaller.
Marcus Aurelius
Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not thy thoughts at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest expect to befall thee: but on every occasion ask thyself, What is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing? For thou wilt be ashamed to confess. In the next place remember that neither the future nor the past pains thee, but only the present. But this is reduced to a very little, if thou only circumscribest it, and chidest thy mind, if it is unable to hold out against even this.
Do not take the whole of your life at once. Ask, of this occasion only, what in it is past bearing, and you will be embarrassed by the answer. Neither the past nor the future is on the desk. What is on it is small, if you let it be only itself.
Marcus Aurelius
If any man should propose to thee the question, how the name Antoninus is written, wouldst thou with a straining of the voice utter each letter? What then if they grow angry, wilt thou be angry too? Wilt thou not go on with composure and number every letter? just so then in this life also remember that every duty is made up of certain parts. These it is thy duty to observe and without being disturbed or showing anger towards those who are angry with thee to go on thy way and finish that which is set before thee.
You would not spell a name by shouting all its letters together. You would say them one at a time, and if somebody was angry at you for it, you would still say them one at a time. Every task is made of parts, and the parts are done in order. That is the whole of the method.
Marcus Aurelius
Occupy thyself with few things, says the philosopher, if thou wouldst be tranquil.—But consider if it would not be better to say, Do what is necessary, and whatever the reason of the animal which is naturally social requires, and as it requires. For this brings not only the tranquility which comes from doing well, but also that which comes from doing few things. For the greatest part of what we say and do being unnecessary, if a man takes this away, he will have more leisure and less uneasiness. Accordingly on every occasion a man should ask himself, Is this one of the unnecessary things? Now a man should take away not only unnecessary acts, but also, unnecessary thoughts, for thus superfluous acts will not follow after.
And the third cut is the deepest. Most of what we say and do is not necessary. Before each thing, ask whether it is one of the unnecessary ones. He includes thoughts in that, because the unnecessary acts follow from them.
One question
Of everything on the list, which is the one thing that is actually in front of you now?
Meditations is quoted from George Long's translation of 1862, which is in the public domain. The passages are chosen by hand, shown as written, and never paraphrased.