Do you ever feel like you’re falling behind? I certainly do. To be honest, it happens more often than I’d care to admit, and I’ve been feeling it a lot here lately.

There are healthy ways and unhealthy ways to deal with feeling behind. Right now, as I’m taking on a lot of extra responsibility for a major project at the church, I’m trying to properly cope with these feelings as they come. And that’s something I’ve had to learn to do.

Here are a few things I try to keep in mind when I feel like I’m falling behind.

Don’t blame yourself.

My first inclination when I feel behind is to look for what went wrong. How could I have avoided this? What did I do to put myself in a situation where I feel this way?

But the truth is that we aren’t always at fault. We live in a demanding world. Even the most organized, on-top-of-it people get overwhelmed sometimes. Things come up, priorities have to be managed, and there are only so many hours in a day. The fact that we feel ourselves falling behind doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s our fault.

Sure, there are times when we procrastinate and put ourselves in a bad spot. And in those situations, we can choose to beat ourselves up. Or we can choose to learn from our mistakes and do better next time. I prefer to avoid the blame game and go straight to the productive part of getting myself out of the situation.

Our culture teaches us that our value comes from our work, and so when we fall behind, we tend to feel guilty. But there is no shame in admitting where you are and trying to find the best way forward. Wasting energy on a pity party is counterproductive, so it’s best to just skip that part.

Stressing out won’t help.

Another thing that isn’t going to help you catch up: stressing out. Again, this is a natural response to feeling behind, but it’s an urge we have to fight. Because when our energy is spent on stressing and not on solving, we fall deeper into the trap.

How do we avoid stressing out in stressful situations? That’s easier said than done. But I’ve always found it helpful to make a plan. I write out everything I need to get done and organize it on a timeline. Then I break those big tasks down into subtasks that help me form concrete, actionable steps. And then I get started.

Focus and organization are my antidotes to stress. Yours may be different, but I believe that we all have them at our disposal. We just have to figure out what they are.

I find it helpful to focus on the details. You might be more a big-picture person. Maybe the vision of what you’re doing excites you and gives you the passion you need to avoid stress. Maybe you’ve got a mantra that keeps you centered. Or maybe you just need a warm beverage to help you fight off the nerves.

Whatever it is, find what keeps you out of the stress zone and use it to help you as you try to get caught up.

The only way out is through.

And of course, then there’s the part where you actually solve the problem. This may not be the case for everyone, but I generally find that the hardest part of any project is just starting it. Especially when I’m feeling behind, I dread getting into something because I don’t know how I’m ever going to get out of it.

But I always find that it’s not as bad as I’ve made it out to be in my mind. Once I get past the stress and self-blaming and actually do the thing, I feel so much better because I’m making progress.

The only way to overcome that falling behind feeling is to catch up. The only way out is through. And as much as you may dread that process, it’s the only thing that’s going to make you feel any better.

So when you’re feeling behind and you don’t know what to do… just start. It doesn’t have to be perfect, at least not at first. It doesn’t have to be this gigantic thing you’ve made it in your head. At the end of the day, it’s your job to get done what you’re behind on. So do it. I promise you’ll feel much better once you’ve got the ball rolling.

That’s what I’ve got for you this week. I know these reminders are simplistic, but often it’s the simple things that trip us. That’s how it is for me, anyway. So I’m trying to use these reminders to avoid getting tripped up in the peripheral stuff and focus on the tasks at hand.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to run and get caught up on some things. Maybe you do, too. Now’s your chance, so don’t waste it! Let’s leave that falling behind feeling in the dust—if not forever, at least for now.