Modern life is so demanding that it can lead us to feel chronically drained. How can we address the problem before everyday stress turns into burnout?

There is a reasonable chance you are reading this while doing one or more other thing – perhaps switching between work emails and social media, or using it as a way to put off today’s gargantuan to-do list. We are living through an era in which there are so many demands on us, whether it’s the trivial – endless notifications from your most annoying WhatsApp group – or more serious, such as caring responsibilities or financial or work stresses. If you are feeling overwhelmed, you are not the only one.

Linda Blair, a clinical psychologist and author of The Key to Calm, says: “I’m getting a lot of it in my clinic.” Some people feel paralysed, she says, and can’t decide what to do next. “A lot of my clients say they have trouble finishing any one thing, so that leaves them feeling more and more ineffective.” It’s demoralising, “and it’s not their fault”. It’s not even the fault of the tasks, she says, which don’t necessarily seem, to an outsider, that demanding. Blair thinks it’s an issue of sheer volume, adding: “I think our attention span has already been challenged by using screens so much.” The pandemic hastened this, but it didn’t invent overwhelm. “The problem is managing modern life.”