You might recognise this feeling…

You feel tired, even when you’ve not been doing that much.

You find it hard to muster up enthusiasm.

You can’t get your thoughts in order or concentrate properly.

Tasks that should be easy seem harder than they used to.

It’s as if a kind of malaise has come over you.

And it can be really frustrating.

Because at the same time, you’re constantly being told that now is the time to get after your goals. Rethink your business… set up a new one… learn a new skill… be creative… embrace the AI Age!

In your head, you totally agree that you should be doing these things.

In your heart, you really want to make progress.

But for some reason, you struggle to get started.

If this sounds familiar, you might think there’s something wrong with you — or that you’re lacking some quality that other people seem to have.

Well, that’s not the case.

I get it all the time!

You’re absolutely not to blame for feeling like this.

Because there’s a very good reason for the struggle.

The Everyday Anxiety Problem We All Face

We all deal with stress and uncertainty in different ways.

Some of us hide our feelings and put on a brave face.

Some let their emotions pour out.

Some get angry. Others feel sad.

And some feel nothing at all, as if a light has switched off inside.

The truth is, we’re all carrying some form of low-level anxiety right now — and it’s getting worse, not better.

The American Psychiatric Association’s annual mental health poll found that 43% of adults felt more anxious in 2024 than the year before.

That was up from 37% the year before that.

The main drivers – the economy, global instability, and the relentless pressure of current events.

With the state of the world in 2026, it’s a trend that shows no sign of reversing!

It might be about money — the cost of living, a business that’s not growing as fast as you’d like, a job that feels less secure than it once did.

It might be about the pace of change — AI, technology, the sense that the world is shifting under your feet and you’re not quite sure where it’s heading.

Whatever the source, this background anxiety can be a serious obstacle when you’re trying to get things done.

Sure, some people thrive under pressure — they feel more driven precisely because things feel urgent.

If you’re one of them, brilliant! Use that energy.

But not everyone responds that way.

For many people, low level anxiety makes it harder to concentrate on what matters. They feel less creative… less focussed… less inspired… less energetic… less motivated.

If that describes you, don’t feel ashamed or guilty about it.

This is a natural response to a world that never seems to let up.

And the problem is as much chemical as it is psychological.

The Stress Hormone That’s Quietly Sabotaging You

We’ve been living in our modern technological society for about two hundred years.

In historical terms, that’s a blip.

For most of human existence — that’s the 200,000 years since homo sapiens first started striding around the African continent — we lived a relatively slow-paced, rural existence.

Our brains evolved to deal with immediate threats only.

The sudden appearance of a predator through the bushes.

An attack by a neighbouring tribe.

These threats would trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol into the bloodstream.

Everything would focus into a “fight or flight” response.

But crucially, this only happened occasionally.

Today, we live in a world of constant distressing impressions and information.

Thanks to smartphones, social media, and rolling news, we’re bombarded with uncomfortable facts, events, and opinions every single day.

Our brains didn’t evolve for this.

The never-ending stream of anxiety-inducing content creates a drip-feed of cortisol in your bloodstream that quietly wreaks havoc on your mind and body.

The science backs this up clearly.

Research on business executives found that chronic stress elevated cortisol levels even at rest — and directly impaired cognitive performance, with measurable increases in errors and slower reaction times on concentration tasks.

These aren’t just vague feelings. They show up in the data.

Cortisol disrupts sleep.

It causes fatigue.

It impairs memory and concentration.

These are the exact symptoms you might be feeling — the inability to focus, the lack of enthusiasm, the sense that even simple tasks feel strangely difficult.

And here’s something important:

The news habit that many people rely on to “stay informed” can make this significantly worse.

Research from Texas Tech University found that people who fixated on threatening news were more likely to develop chronic stress and long-term physiological harm.

Worse still, it creates a vicious cycle — rather than switching off, many people check more frequently trying to feel better.

But it doesn’t help.

The more they check, the more it interferes with everything else in their life.

As the American author Robert Bloch once wrote:

“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

So it’s important to find ways to turn off that drip, even just for short periods.

How to Overcome Anxiety And Get Things Done

The first thing to try is simple, even if it sounds drastic: switch off the news for a day or two each week.

If that feels impossible, then at least limit your media exposure to a fixed window each day.

Log off social media.

Turn off news alerts.

Put your phone down.

Instead, pay attention to the real world around you.

The sound of birdsong.

The smell of something good cooking.

A proper conversation with someone you care about.

A walk somewhere green.

Find something you genuinely enjoy — a film, a piece of music, getting out in the garden — and make sure it finds its way into your day.

Move Your Body… Even a Little Bit!

Exercise is one of the most effective tools available for resetting an anxious, cortisol-flooded brain.

You don’t need to run a marathon.

A short daily walk where you push yourself slightly will do the job.

Here’s why it works: physical activity actually reduces cortisol levels in the body.

It also stimulates the production of norepinephrine — a brain chemical that helps you handle stress more efficiently.

The result is that you feel calmer, more focussed, and genuinely better equipped to tackle the day.

The lift in mood isn’t just in your head.

It’s measurable, and it’s real.

Ten Minutes of Quiet Time

This one tends to get dismissed as too simple to be worth doing. But the research is surprisingly compelling.

A study published in Scientific Reports found that just ten minutes of mindfulness meditation per day improves both concentration and working memory.

The brain becomes more efficient — literally requiring fewer resources to complete the same cognitive tasks.

You don’t need an app. You don’t need a technique.

Simply sit somewhere quiet, focus on your breathing, and when your mind wanders — which it will — just bring it gently back.

Do that for ten minutes.

That’s it. Do it daily and it will make a measurable difference.

Here’s The Thing About Actually Doing The Work…

When it comes to sitting down at your laptop and making progress on a project, don’t give yourself too much of a challenge.

Start small.

I mean genuinely small — something that takes ten minutes, twenty minutes at most.

Watch a short video.

Read one article.

Work through a single chapter.

Write a paragraph.

Just do that one thing.

Then stop. Relax. Give yourself a little reward.

The next day, do another small thing.

Keep going like that — in bite-sized chunks, without pressuring yourself.

At first, it won’t feel like you’re moving anywhere fast. But after a while, you’ll look back and realise you’ve actually made real progress.

This is known as the Kaizen technique.

I’ve talked about it many times before.

The word comes from Japanese — kai meaning change, zen meaning good.

Change for the better.

It was actually pioneered by Toyota after the Second World War and has since been adopted by organisations all over the world.

The philosophy is simple: small, continuous improvements, applied consistently, produce significant results over time.

It sounds almost too simple. But it works. Especially when you’re running low on mental energy and the world feels like a lot.

So try these strategies together over the coming week and see what works for you.