Your to-do list is too long. (And you know it.)
You've been staring at it or scrolling instead of starting the thing that's been sitting on it for days.
Yet somehow, even on the days you're busy from morning to night, you still end up feeling like you didn't do enough.
If that's you, I know the feeling. And I want you to know that it’s not a productivity problem. It's likely that you’re overwhelmed or can’t even figure out where to start.
It just… feels like… too much.
But the fix isn't going to be another new planner or a stricter routine. It's actually getting your brain out of "everything is urgent and has to get done today" mode.
Why "Just Make a List" Sometimes Doesn't Work When You're Overwhelmed
When your brain is stretched thin, more items on a piece of paper doesn't necessarily help - because the problem isn't that you don't know what's on the list. It's that everything on it feels equally urgent, equally important, and all equally impossible to start.
What can usually help is something that can ask you the right questions - what's actually urgent, what's causing the most emotional pressure, what's not even yours to carry right now. Because that’ll help you prioritize for your actual, current life, not just respond to everything that’s calling your name.
A Prompt for When You're Frozen and Scrolling
Here's one I love to use, straight from my AI prompt pack:
"I'm avoiding something important and I feel stuck. Instead of telling me to 'just start somewhere,' help me understand what's happening. Ask me: What task am I avoiding? What feels hard about it? What am I afraid might happen? Then: Help me shrink the task into a 5 or 10-minute version. Something actionable. Give me a 5-minute 'starter action.' Help me create a gentle countdown or activation method. End with one grounding sentence and one clear first step. No shame. No productivity guilt. Just momentum."
Feel free to paste that into Claude or ChatGPT the next time you're avoiding a task. It won't judge you for why you’re not getting started in the first place, or for how many days it’s been being rewritten on the next to-do list - it'll help you understand what’s happening, and then it’ll shrink the task down until starting actually feels possible for you.
It's Not About Doing More. It's About Doing the Right Thing First.
The women I work with are NOT lazy.
They're carrying a big mental load, usually more than anyone around them realizes, and their brains are doing exactly what an overloaded brain does - freezing or spinning or defaulting to whatever feels easiest in the moment (hello, scrolling).
What will help move the needle isn't going to be willpower. (Though it would be soooo nice to be able to pull some out of thin air sometimes!)
You need a plan built around your capacity that day - low, medium, or high - instead of a generic, never-ending list that assumes you have unlimited bandwidth every single day.
That's the whole idea behind the structure prompts in my AI prompt pack: they ask what you can realistically hold today… then they help you build from there.
You Don't Have to Be "Good at AI" for This to Work
If you can copy, paste, and answer a few questions (and answer them honestly!), you can do this.
No subscription. No new app to create a password for.
Just a tool that's built to meet you where you are on a tough day… instead of where a 24 year old productivity influencer thinks you should be.😒
If your to-do list has been taking over your life lately or you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, check out the full 30 Prompt Pack here - it includes 5 prompts just for building daily structure, plus prompts for overwhelm, procrastination, and the ever-so-fun 3am spiral. $17, one payment, yours to use forever.
~ Lori
About the Author - Lori Streator is a licensed therapist, course creator, and podcast host, helping people work through anxiety, OCD, post-bariatric surgery, and their relationship with food.
Based in Bradenton, FL - programs available online worldwide.