![\"Claudia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/638c5df8-ae85-43df-a346-acedb53b4b1a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nApart from that precious \u201cWhat day is it?\u201d week between Boxing Day and New Year, there\u2019s hardly a time of year that isn\u2019t fraught. Yet somehow we persist in believing that in the near future, perhaps a month from now, we\u2019ll be less frantic. <\/p>\n
In reality, little changes. And now and then everything accumulates and we get that gut-churning feeling of life hurtling out of control. Most of us are familiar with that sensation of being overwhelmed \u2014 or \u201coverwhelm\u201d, it having been deservedly upgraded to a noun. But rather than helplessly snowball towards burnout, there\u2019s a lot we can do to ease stress powerfully when it feels insurmountable. <\/p>\n
Claudia Hammond, the award-winning writer and presenter of All in the Mind on BBC Radio 4, and visiting professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Sussex, knows that sense of it all feeling too much. \u201cI am a burn-the-candle-at-both-ends person, I like socialising as well,\u201d she says. Her friends were amused when she wrote a book on rest \u2014 \u201cYou never rest, you\u2019re always doing everything,\u201d they said. Now, though, she\u2019s changed her ways, inspired by researching and writing her latest book, Overwhelmed: Ways to Take the Pressure Off. <\/p>\n
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Claudia Hammond<\/p>\n
IBRODIEFOTO<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m working at home I\u2019ll always pop out to the garden for ten minutes to see what needs doing,\u201d she says. \u201cI used to feel guilty about that and now I don\u2019t feel guilty at all. This is a protector of my mental health.\u201d And while she concedes \u201cI might be a bit of a perfectionist\u201d, she adds: \u201cI\u2019m trying to not beat myself up if I make a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her book is full of neat, practical and psychological evidence-based strategies to help reduce the strain. Here are seven rules to live by this year.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Feeling burnt out? Here\u2019s how to come back from the edge<\/a><\/p>\n 1. Write a detailed to-do list before bed<\/p>\n But accept that your to-do list will never be done. Hammond has multiple to-do lists \u2014 one, on her phone app, runs to a horrifying 93 items. But she wisely reframes this as evidence of a full life, not \u201ca litany of oppressive demands\u201d. She reveres rather than fears a detailed written list as it disburdens brain and memory. Scientists call this cognitive offloading.<\/p>\n Hammond cites a study by Michael Scullin, the director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor University in Texas. He found that writing a to-do list before bed helped busy people fall asleep nine minutes faster than those who merely wrote down all they\u2019d achieved that day. Those writing a longer to-do list \u2014 ten tasks or more \u2014 fell asleep 15 minutes sooner than those who made no list and six minutes faster than those who wrote a brief list. Scullin told Hammond that if you just think through the list, your brain realises this information is important and keeps \u201ctrying to refresh it in your head\u201d. Write it down, she says, \u201cand you don\u2019t have to worry about remembering to do all those things\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cPerfectionists often do very well as they try very hard,\u201d Hammond says. But they put themselves, and often others, under immense pressure. \u201cYou can\u2019t make a single mistake and must be absolutely brilliant \u2014 and brilliant at everything.\u201d <\/p>\n Essentially perfectionism makes us feel \u201csuper competitive\u201d and not good enough, she says \u2014 whether it\u2019s self-imposed or expected of you by others. \u201cIf you\u2019re a perfectionist and competitive and there are others around you who are also perfectionists then you can all end up competing. And then you can end up feeling you\u2019ve failed,\u201d she says. It drives insecurity and self-blame and is demotivating. <\/p>\n The perfectionist trait of being self-critical increases mental strain. Hammond suggests employing the check of \u201cwould I be this mean to a friend?\u201d There are kinder ways to boost your chances of success, such as describing yourself as what you hope to be (within reason). This supports motivation, as shown by a study conducted during the 2008 US presidential election. People were asked either how they felt about \u201cvoting\u201d or about \u201cbeing a voter\u201d \u2014 95 per cent in the \u201cnoun\u201d group went on to cast their vote, compared with 82 per cent in the \u201cverb\u201d group. \u201cYou can use that with other things,\u201d Hammond says. \u201cYou can say \u2018I\u2019m a runner\u2019 rather than \u2018I go running\u2019. You begin to see that as part of your identity.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Use stress to your advantage <\/p>\n Embrace the fact that not all stress is bad for you. Hammond describes research that put people in the pulse-quickening position of giving a surprise talk. \u201cBeforehand they got one group to say \u2018I am excited\u2019 and the other group \u2018I am calm\u2019.\u201d The excited group\u2019s talks were rated as more persuasive, competent and confident. \u201cThere is such a thing as being too relaxed if you\u2019re trying to perform,\u201d Hammond says. Our acute stress response equips us to deal with a perceived emergency. \u201cIt sends more blood to the brain, it also stops you being distracted \u2014 it sharpens your thinking so you\u2019re focused.\u201d<\/p>\n More evidence of the benefits of reframing stress symptoms as a challenge and not a threat were shown by another study at Harvard University. Volunteers had to give a speech, which was filmed, in front of po-faced evaluators, then do some mental arithmetic. Hammond reports that participants who knew about \u201chow to reframe stress to their own advantage had increased cardiac efficiency and a more adaptive cardiovascular response\u201d (their hearts were pounding but their blood vessels remained relaxed) than those told to ignore their stress. But what if we believe all stress, not just chronic stress, is debilitating? Hammond cites Stanford University research which found that a two-hour session on the pros and cons of stress shifted people towards having a more \u201cstress is enhancing\u201d mindset and coping better.<\/p>\n![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/9ae48405-01c3-4f95-a2cb-43b84baa0bb7.jpg\")
2. Start judging yourself as you would a friend<\/p>\n