exercise · all tools

Overwhelm versus Overload

Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation1 — host
Trust · group readinessany
Disclosure · what is sharedoptional

Distinguishes overload — too much to do, a scheduling problem — from overwhelm, which is a state one is in and cannot schedule away. Participants learn to tell which they are in and to work each differently, with time management addressed only as the answer to the first.

Practical

Time
25-30 min
Group
1 · individual
Settings
self-guided, in-person
Materials
Worksheet in the guide
Mechanisms
emotional-processing, cognitive-reframing
Change scope
state → skill · repeatable

Instructions

Where
unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/Step_Up_A_Pocket_Guide_… Step Up! A Pocket Guide to Social Change for Young Leaders, open
Availability
Open online — published at the link, free to read

Source link checked 29 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 28 Aug 2026

This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.

Origin

Monica Sharma — Radical Transformational Leadership, adapted in UNFPA's Step Up! pocket guide (2021)

In this directory via Step Up! A Pocket Guide to Social Change for Young Leaders

One of two activities in the guide drawn from Monica Sharma's work, whose Radical Transformational Leadership is held here as a source in its own right.

status: checked · added 2026-08-29