snowed under and breaking down

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Hi all
I have so much uni work at the moment. I have 2 lab reports, a mapping excersise, soil profile and project for geography, 2 missed lectures to catch up on, a chemistry assignment and a geology essay to do and they're all too hard and i can't do most of them. When i get too much work to do i get depressed and i break down a lot because i can't keep up with all the work. Whenever i finally finish something i get more work and it just seems to pile up. I've been crying all afternoon because i get so mad if i can't finish something i've been given and i start throwing things around the room. My friends are like 'oh you'll finish it' but they don't understand. Can anyone tell me whats the best way to deal with an overload of work you're never going to finish?

Sounds like executive dysfunction kicking in. It sounds deceptively simple but just pick one thing and start working. Personally, I lose a lot of time trying to prioritize and end up getting nothing done. Devote your focus to that one thing til it's completed or decide on a time length and take a break by working on another thing. Once you're actually working you'll feel less overwhelmed.

Aimless is right.

I also struggle with significant executive function deficits. I get overwhelmed, I get to a point of "lockup," and then I'm useless. What I try to do is do something, *anything*, for 20 minutes. It may not be the most important task (I'm lousy at prioritizing), but at least it gets me moving.

As my significant other says, "When you can't figure out what to do, do something!"

Yeah, I tend to lock up when there is too much to also. Can't get away with that in school. Next quarter or semester I suggest taking fewer credits. It will take longer to get a degree then, but it might need to be done that way.
But for NOW, what to do? Close your eyes, put your hand on something, and pretend that's the only thing you have to do now. Work on it for an hour, then give yourself a treat and some exercise, and then return to it for another hour. Repeat until done. Go see a movie. Sleep. Pick the next thing. If you truly aren't able to get it all done, get somethingdone.

Perhaps you can arrange to finish some of the classes later. I had to do that when I had the flu for one quarter and was too sick to finish every class.

This is an executive dysfunction issue and here's how I would handle it. You will need several sheets of paper and will also need to make some decisions. I can handle my executive dysfunction once I get everything down on paper....maybe it will help you too.

Prepare an overview, a master list. Take one sheet of paper and organize your assignments, projects and issues by class. Put the exact (or approximate) due date to the right of each assignment. The 2 labs reports are chemistry?, what class are the 2 missed lectures in?....etc.

OK. Now look at the due dates.....It would be logical to begin work on the assignments and projects that have the earliest due dates. That's probably what I would do. You need to make decisions about priority. What do you want to do first? second? etc.

So now take a few sheets of paper, and rather than organizing by class, this time you will organize by due date. Take the assignment, project or issue which is due first or you feel is the most pressing. Prioritize. What you do here is devote one side of a piece of paper to each assignment, and begin with the ones due first. Even if you don't write anything under the page heading, put the project or assignment name at the top of the page, along with the due date. Go though this with everything you must do...assigning a full side of a sheet of paper to each assignment, project or issue. [Regarding the missed lectures, what are your options for recovering the missed information? Do you know the general subject matter covered in them?]

You should have several sheets of paper with project/assignment title at the top and due date. You also have a master list of everything you must accomplish, organized by class. Now, rather than stewing about what you have to do....take your sheets of paper and fold them into airplanes...and start sailing them. Ah, that was a joke...haha..

Now begin making some notes on your assignments....start anywhere and write anything, whatever comes into your head....eventually you will begin getting into the nitty gritty of each assignment/project. It's all about making decisions. And feel free to go from one page to another....writing down whatever just occurred to you. Brainstorm.

At this point, hopefully, you have several sheets of paper with lots of things written down on them. You can take a break now and just think about what you have done. The hardest part about having such an overwhelming number of tasks facing you is-- knowing where to start. I hope these suggestions have helped you in making that decision.

All the ideas mentioned are useful - and to that I would agree with doing one small task at a time, and writing things down - but aside from that I would recommend getting help. Are you with the Student Services department of your uni? If not, a parent?

It's ok to ask for help, and sometimes as little as half an hour of it can prevent disastrous consequences.

If you get help, ask them to help you with structuring and organizing your studying (making it clear that you need no help doing/understanding the actual work).

I'd also encourage you to learn basic meditation skills, for its calming affect. When you start to feel the overwhelm come up, just take ten minutes and focus on your breathing, letting go of tension, or if you can't do that "stand beside it", just notice it as other and examine it.

Just letting the overwhelm run your life will make things crazier and crazier. Time to learn how to get the upper hand.

Then return to all the previous wonderful suggestions for actually attacking the assignments. You'll be much more effective with a calm mind.

For whatever reason, I like getting the really small stuff done out of the way, just so that in my mind it doesn't look like I have a ton of things to do. This is despite when the things are due, so I know that won't be terribly helpful if you have a big thing due right away. However, it just helps me to focus, as when I do finish a task, I feel a lot better because I feel like I'm actually making progress. That in itself helps me be in a better mood for the next task I set out to do. I'm not really so good at splitting large tasks into smaller ones with shorter-term goals to reach, so I guess that's why I do it this way.

Thanks so much guys. I've never heard of executive dysfunction before and i reckon i have it after looking it up! I have to write lists the night before i ahve a long day at uni because i get confused if i have too much stuff to do, and they always contain boring things like 'get out of bed' etc. I write lists of assignments due and everything but when i get stuck on one i go mad! I always thought it was just because im not very organised Its good to know i'm not the only one who gets overwhelmed by lots of work.

I tried meditation. I know people who do it and try to teach me, but i get too distracted, think about random things. can never get my mind completely free of all the random chatter which goes on in my head (not schizophrenic chatter but just my thoughts etc) and i just get bored. It's really hard for me to concentrate on nothing.

Yes, exactly! That's why it's so useful... and there are some fundamental misunderstandings about meditation apparent in what you've written.

First off, what you're noticing is how your mind always is, 24/7. Everyone, NT or otherwise, is amazed at how much noise and chatter is in their heads. Yakkety, yakkety, yakkety. Like my teacher says... the brain produces thoughts like the stomach produces digestive juices; it's just what it does. You can't turn it off for more than a couple of milliseconds, that's not the goal.

By concentrating on the breath, or body experience, or a koan, or a stanza of sutra or passage of the bible all we're doing is focusing and calming the mind, not turning it off. Rather than being at the mercy of whatever random BS is floating around up there, tossed this way and that by any strong thought, we learn how to step aside from it a bit, get a little distance. Become masters of the wild elephant of mind.

I'm not talking meditation for relaxation here, I'm talking training the mind to be a more useful, disciplined tool. Right now your mind is like a wild elephant on coke... through meditation training, the brain can actually be rewired to some degree, the executive function improved, memory and self-possession increased. I know, I've experienced it.

Boredom is juicy... it is usually a mask for other things. All the reasons you say you can't do it... those are the same problems with getting other things done, right? Lack of focus, distraction, boredom... general scatteredness. All that random sparky energy, irritation, frazzledness free-floating inside is uncomfortable and driving and we dash about to avoid experiencing it or we completely freeze up in overwhelm and confusion... so we never get comfortable with how we actually are.

Because we have such a strong habit of not being still, because our culture re-inforces frantic business, it's very, very hard to go counter to that and sit still. That's why I said only 10 minutes... but 10 minutes of focused meditation does accumulate over time, becomes easier and more pleasant. But no joke, initially it is hard work to just keep bringing the mind back over and over and over. That's the point... to train your mind to return over and over, to gain control over it rather than being its victim.

My lists often include really boring stuff, or really basic stuff. *Really* basic stuff: "drink a full glass of water with morning pills" or "shower first, then get dressed" or "wear _______." Sometimes I think of it as "Life 101" but if that's what I need to do to function, so be it.

i agree with aimless & blastoff

I'll give it another go and see what happens. I've been told to meditate by other people before also lol. I can concentrate really well, but only on things i really want to, if you know what i mean.
oh and by the way, thanks

A couple of things that might make it easier...
Meditate first thing in the morning. Just sit on the edge of your bed and count the breath (1 -10, begin again, for 10 min.) The mind is a tiny bit quieter first thing in the morning (or whenever you wake up)

Every time you notice that your mind has wandered off (or run off ) congratulate yourself... that's a little moment of enlightenment... and just bring the mind back to counting. No big deal.

If you spend the whole 10 minutes sucked into some train of thought... you won't be the first. I know a guy on a week long retreat who built a whole house in his head... all the way down to the number of nails he would need. LOL It happens. Just bow to it and try again next time.

And remember... your untrained mind is like a wild elephant on coke. It's not going to like being detoxed and tamed. It will resist, it will fight, it will come up with all kinds of clever excuses/reasons not to do this. Don't let that rascal fool you. Just nod to it, say 'Yeah, it's a b***h, too bad" and sit still and count the breath anyway.

I just found a book called "Asperger's Syndrome and Mindfulness" that looks pretty good. It's by Chris Mitchell, who's on the spectrum.

And feel free to PM me any time if you have questions.

thanks so much for your help, donkeybuster. I will give it a go and let u know how it all turns out. Oh and the guy building a house is awesome , i make movies in my head and they go on and on and on