How to Tackle an Overwhelming Problem

What I Learned Doing a Landscaping Project

We have a garden bed in front of our house, but I spent the first four years after moving in mostly ignoring it. We walk in through the garage, so I didn’t see it all that much. However, one day I noticed it, and it was in shambles.

I had never gardened or landscaped in my life. I did grow up doing yard work every other weekend (thanks, Dad), so I knew how to mow, edge, and weed eat, but landscaping was beyond my skillset.

I wanted to fix it and make the neglected space look nice, but it was overwhelming for to me to figure out what to do and where to start. First of all, I knew nothing about landscaping, and second of all, it seemed like it would take a really long time. Those two factors, lack of knowledge and the duration of the project, made this project feel very overwhelming.

Also, I don’t generally like to start a personal project that I know I can’t knock out quickly. I don’t like having things unfinished. So starting a project like this was not something I was comfortable with.

But for some reason, I really wanted to do this. I didn’t want to hire someone and the weather was nice out (this was in late winter), so I figured I’d go for it. Here are the things I learned along the way. Hopefully, it can help you tackle something that may be overwhelming you.

Building Confidence Through Small Wins

With any project, it can be helpful to start with a task that’s going to build your confidence right away. I find it helpful when it’s something that’s a bit of a challenge, but isn’t too difficult or too time-consuming. That way you can go through the process of working through a difficult task, but it doesn’t take up a lot of time and make you are frustrated right out of the gate.

What’s something you can start on that will help you feel more confident about your project? For me, it was trimming down some grass plants that need to be trimmed every winter. I trimmed them using hedge trimmers, which was something I’d never done before. It was new for me, but also was something that could be accomplished in a day. I learned how to deal with the unknown with that situation and after that, I felt like I could do more.

Trimmed grass plants

Focusing on One Thing at a Time

Since there were so many steps involved in this project, I put my focus only on the one thing I was working on at that time. To help me do this, I broke the project down into smaller pieces to keep it manageable. Think about how you can break your project into smaller pieces and then put your focus solely on the step you are working on. Here are some of the steps I took.

Cleaning up the Yard

Before the cleaning phase

First, I planned on removing all of the weeds. That was something I could see that I needed to do and something that seemed like a clear first step. I wouldn’t worry about what would come next, I just knew I needed to tackle this, and it took me weeks to do. I also had to pull up all of the weed barrier that was in place because it wasn’t effective anymore, and I felt like it was weighing the space down.

Also in this phase, I cut back all of the existing dormant plants like lantana, I pulled up a dead plant (boxwood), and I raked up all of the old mulch and leaves that had been there for over four years.

After the cleaning phase

Planting

Then I planted a few plants. At first, I spent quite a bit of time trying to determine what to plant, then I got overwhelmed. The project stalled a bit at this point, because I was overcomplicating it instead of trying to keep it simple. I was trying to redo everything, instead of keeping it small. So I reduced the scope, kept it simple, and settled on just three plants (two lantanas and one boxwood).

Three new plants (pic taken after mulch was added)

Mulching

Then I added new mulch all over the area. It took me some time to decide what type and color of mulch I wanted, but once I did this turned out to be a lot easier than I thought.

After mulch

Asking for Help

I generally am okay asking for help on things, but sometimes I hold back if I’m feeling a bit insecure. Also there is so much available online these days, that it may feel like a burden to ask someone for help when I can just look it up myself.

But I knew that I had people in my life that could give me solid advice and answers that were specific to my situation. They were very helpful when I got stuck or just needed input on something. I also enjoyed doing this because it connected me to other humans and allowed me to have real-life conversations. Also, they got to share something they knew, which hopefully was a good feeling for them.

If you are stuck in a project or task, think about who could help you. Sometimes it may feel like we are burdening people, but I’ve noticed that people genuinely love to share information and help others.

Celebrating Wins Along the Way

Sometimes I tend to focus on the destination and the final results, rather than the journey. When I do that, I miss all of the accomplishments (and fun) along the way. It’s natural to want to feel good when a project is complete, but then I miss all of the things I can be proud of as I work towards my goal.

For this project, I worked on shifting my focus and placing more emphasis on the wins along the way. I felt pride knowing that I spent time working hard each day. I also celebrated the various phases of the project each time a milestone was hit.

I noticed that celebrating my accomplishments as they happened also gave me momentum to keep going forward with my project.

Being Okay With Good Enough

Sometimes the thing that stops me from starting a project is that I make the end result or goal too hard to reach. It’s good to dream big and to seek high quality final results, but we also need to consider that sometimes good enough is okay and better than what we had to start with. In a perfect world, I would have loved to have completely redone my lawn and never have to touch it again. For example, I wanted to plant ten new plants, but that gave me too many choices and a lot of work, so I settled on just three new plants. Keep in mind I had never even planted anything before, so planting three actually was an accomplishment and good enough.

Are high standards or the desire for perfection holding you back? If they are stopping you from taking action, see if you can do just a few things and then be proud of those things.

Being Okay With Unfinished

For months my yard wasn’t finished. This project took a lot of time and I wasn’t able to work on it every week, so some weeks it went undone. It’s the front yard and is a public space that everyone can see, so I had to be okay with people knowing that I was starting something and that it was taking me a while to work on it. I was publicly committing to this.

And even though I completed the work I set out to do, it’s not technically finished. The thing about gardening is it’s never done. I will add more plants. I will always have to weed, and I’ll regularly add new mulch. I am being okay with the fact that this is an evolving process and not something that I get to be done with and move on. Also some projects are never really finished anyway.

Before and After

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This project that initially felt overwhelming to me, came to be something that I really enjoyed. I got into pulling weeds and cleaning up the yard. It was a nice activity and also hard work. I came to look forward to and enjoy it, even though there were a lot of unknowns.

Is there something that you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t started yet? Could you start with a task that will build your confidence? Could you break it into smaller steps? Maybe start it and see where it goes…