Financial planners face challenges that few outside the industry truly understand, including maintaining relationships, keeping pace with new technologies, staying ahead of tax law and market changes, juggling client demands, and feeling the constant pressure to demonstrate value, as well as managing personal and family commitments. Add to those a flood of emails, notifications, and a scarcity mindset whispering, “You’re not doing enough,” and it’s no wonder that being overwhelmed feels like the norm for too many professionals.

This cycle steals time and energy from your day. Without remedy, it doesn’t get better over time, as the term “burnout” has come to describe how it feels to be overwhelmed and stressed for long periods of time.

Planners feeling overwhelmed don’t just see strain on their schedules; it affects the nervous system, leaving many of us anxious, fragmented, and unable to focus clearly, which in turn can hinder work performance. But what is the way out of this cycle?

Root Causes: Why Financial Professionals Feel Overwhelmed

Although causes of feeling overwhelmed and stressed differ for each financial planner, identifying the root source, whether it’s workload, emotional strain, or lack of control, is essential. Awareness transforms chaos into clarity, enabling intentional solutions that restore focus, energy, and professional effectiveness.

Potential root causes of feeling overwhelmed and stressed in financial planners include:

1. Misaligned time mix. Too little time in the high-value zone (advice and client conversations), too much in admin, prep, and prospecting.
2. Capacity strain. Service creep, increased personalization demands, and surge seasons lead to more clients and services without proportional support staff increase.
3. Tool friction. Satisfaction studies call out technology and operational support gaps; even when tools exist, data re-entry and workflow fragmentation add cognitive load.
4. Emotional labor. Grounded advice measurably reduces client stress, which is shouldered by the financial planner. In doing so, planners may be also be absorbing some of the stress, potentially leading to empathy burnout.

Once you uncover what’s truly driving your feelings of being overwhelmed, the next challenge is to avoid the illusion of productivity, in which we continue to do low-value tasks to sustain the feeling of busyness.

The Trap of Busyness: Gaining Perspective

The idea of being busy often has less to do with how much we’re actually doing and more to do with how we perceive our time, manage our priorities, and how we want others to perceive us.

When we focus too much on everything we need to accomplish, without prioritization, it can feel overwhelming, and our days start to feel more packed than they actually are. Often, the busyness mindset forces us to tackle urgent tasks rather than focusing on what’s truly important.

By shifting our mindset to prioritize meaningful tasks over those that carry equal weight we can begin to feel more in control and less overwhelmed. It’s not just about doing less but about being intentional with how we spend our time.

When we stop saying we’re “busy” as if it were a badge of honor, and instead think in terms of purposeful activities, we create a sense of balance and ensure our energy aligns better with what truly matters in our lives.

Here are ways to be intentional about your time and avoid the busyness mindset:

• Integrate resets: Practices like meditation, exercise, or even deep breathing can calm the nervous system and clear a busy mind and only take minutes. These quick resets can help you respond to client interactions with fresh focus and clarity.
• Gain clarity: Pause and reflect to evaluate what truly needs your energy. Are you focused on servicing your top-tier clients and enhancing their experience, or are you trapped in tasks that could be automated or delegated?
• Say no: Too often the most productive move is turning down opportunities that don’t align with your current goals. For example, saying no to taking on a new and overly demanding client frees up time to better serve your existing client base.

Saying no may be the most difficult habit to create, but it can help to begin by saying no to commitments that do not energize you. If you find yourself taking on every opportunity without regard to alignment, it’s a clue you may benefit from more discernment. As a peer shared with me recently:

“I ask myself: ‘Why am I going to this networking meeting? My business is good; I don’t need another client right now. But I really would benefit from spending that time on my client’s experience. ’”

This is abundance in practice—not in scarcity. The courage to say no creates space for deeper focus on relationship building, client-centered planning, and personalization.

Introducing the Three Dimensions of You: Inside, Outside, Beside

To simplify how we interact with busyness, imagine three layers to your daily experience: inside, outside and beside. Focus your efforts on each dimension for best results:

Inside: Internal practices of calm and clarity

• Regular habits like journaling, mindfulness, or exercise can stabilize your internal state so you’re better prepared to tackle everything from client meetings to market fluctuations.
• Evaluate your mindset: Are you operating out of fear, scarcity, or alignment?

Outside: Interactions with the external world

• Your environment matters: A disorganized desk, outdated CRM, or cluttered inbox can add stress and keep you from showing up with confidence.
• Are you overcommitting to events, calls, or meetings that don’t directly support your business’s growth or your clients’ success?

Beside: Support structures that lighten your load

• Beside embodies what exists “beside you” to assist without consuming your energy—think of it as external capacity-building.
• Delegation, technology, or simply asking for help are critical. For instance, outsourcing tasks like scheduling or routine compliance work frees you to focus on strategic client planning.

These three dimensions of you—inside, outside, and beside—should work together harmoniously. They help you prioritize alignment, assess capacity, and reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Do a Mind Audit to Find Clarity

When everything feels like it is too much, finding clarity begins with organization, but not your typical organization. Finding clarity is about personal reflection, specifically examining the way you think.

Here’s a practical tool that financial advisors can use to gain clarity when feeling overwhelmed. It’s an idea that I adapted from similar ideas already in circulation,¹ such as the Eisenhower Matrix. I call this a Mind Audit. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Prioritize Your Tasks

Create three key lists of activities:

• Things I need to do: Essential self-care and wellness activities that enable all other activities (e.g., meditation, exercise, taking vacations).
• Things I have to do: Non-negotiables that carry business consequences when undone (e.g., filing taxes, client compliance).
• Things I want to do: Aspirations that bring joy and growth (e.g., writing a book, attending your child’s school activities).

Step 2: Apply the 5Ds to Each List

Once your tasks are listed, evaluate them using these designations:

1. Dump: Stop doing these tasks done out of habit but no longer serve a purpose.
2. Delegate: Assign these to someone else or hire support.
3. Delay: It’s important, but there’s no urgency—schedule it for later.
4. Decrease: Scale it down—commit to less effort or time.
5. Dedicate: Fully commit and make time for this priority.

Step 3: Trim the Extra Weight ASAP

Once you have your activities designated, dump and delegate first. If you wait on these, they may disrupt your more valuable activities.

By processing tasks through this lens, you streamline your workload and focus on what aligns with your goals. This practice also alleviates mental clutter, providing a sense of calm and control.

Break the Cycle of Feeling Overwhelmed

Breaking away from the busyness trap means redefining your relationship with abundance. It means accepting that success isn’t about doing more but being intentional with what you do. By addressing the full dimensionality of your daily routines (inside, outside, and beside), you can start to regain clarity and create space for what truly matters.

Remember, taking a step back and saying “no” doesn’t close the door to more—it opens space for richer, better-aligned opportunities. Abundance isn’t just about having more money or clients; it’s about having enough time and energy to enjoy what truly fulfills you.

Start small today. Create your lists, rethink your commitments, and find your balance.

Read this blog to learn about helping clients who feel stress: Financial Advisors Help Clients Cope During Times of Financial Stress.

¹ Overwhelmed? Take an Audit of Your Brain’s Real Estate, Medium, Rosie Spinks, 2021

DISCLAIMER: The eMoney Advisor Blog is meant as an educational and informative resource for financial professionals and individuals alike. It is not meant to be, and should not be taken as financial, legal, tax or other professional advice. Those seeking professional advice may do so by consulting with a professional advisor. eMoney Advisor will not be liable for any actions you may take based on the content of this blog.

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