Do you have that feeling of life running like sand through your fingers, and you can’t quite catch onto it?

These are stressful times, and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by everything going on in your life. Keeping on top of events is hard enough, and sometimes you can’t help but feel out of control in your own life. This is perfectly understandable, and you’re not going through it alone – millions of others feel the same way.

We are all treading water, especially right now, and trying to find ways to keep ourselves afloat. However, there are some simple actions you can take to help yourself feel in control and therefore a bit calmer about your life. Follow these simple suggestions below to start grabbing onto life with both hands.

Lists, Schedules and Organizing

Sometimes the best thing you can do to feel organized, is to organize! Making lists can have the great mental effect of taking a load off and helping you relax, plus ticking off tasks is one of the most satisfying moments in life.

Try making lists about little things you want to accomplish, books you want to read, even daily chores you need to do, and feel each one lift off your shoulders as you write it down. Doing this with pen and paper rather than on your phone also helps, as now you can look at them as a physical object and feel on top of everything.

Schedules can also be incredibly useful, particularly if you’re currently stuck at home without work or a fixed timetable. Give yourself a daily getting-up time, and divide your day into sections, with tasks or activities assigned to each timeframe. Breaking your time down like this will help you feel less overwhelmed.

Home Fixes

It’s very hard to feel relaxed and organized if your living situation is messy and chaotic. Now is the perfect time to get this under control. Cleaning can be surprisingly therapeutic, whilst giving you a much more pleasant space to live in.

If you have any broken appliances, now might be a great time to get them fixed; air conditioning is particularly important as we’re coming up to summer, so make sure to give that a check and look up an ac service if necessary. When the hot weather rolls around, you’ll be able to feel cool and well ahead of the game!

Time to Relax

In all this scheduling, organizing and fixing, it’s super important to remember to give yourself time to relax. Don’t feel like you need to be constantly busy to avoid life getting away from you; sometimes, the way to grab onto life is to relax into it.

Make sure you’re allowing yourself some me-time, whether that involves reading, binge-watching a TV series or playing games, these are vital for your mental health. If unstructured time makes you stressed, program ‘relaxation sessions’ into your timetable so you can approach them as an organized period of ‘doing nothing’. This will help you psychologically and make sure you are making the most of your time to relax.