The practical ways I avoid overwhelm in my business

Feeling overwhelmed by all of the things that *need* to be done is one of the biggest challenges that I know many business owners struggle with—regardless of where they are in the business. In today's episode, I'm sharing 6 practical things that I do to avoid that feeling of overwhelm.

– The simplest way to wade through all of those “to-do thoughts” that are floating around your head.
– Why trying to figure out all of the steps before you start a project will only leave your head spinning (and the framework you can use instead).
– How using calendar blocking as a way to be realistic about your productivity will help you stay on track and actually get done what needs to be done.
– Why some things on your to-do list *never* get done and what you can do with them instead.
– The importance of planning your goals and direction and then prioritising what actually matters.

 

 
Today, I'm sharing the practical things that I do in my business to avoid being overwhelmed because when I talk to my audience when I survey my subscribers and you listeners, I know that one of the big struggles that come up over and over again is that you're feeling overwhelmed by all of the different things that you could be doing in your business. 

So I'm going to share six practical things that I do to avoid that feeling of overwhelm or to prevent it in the first place.

 

#1: Brain dumping.

If you haven't done this before, it's such a great tool for anything where you just have so much in your head. It's probably the simplest one on the list and when I have any kind of big project with hundreds of tasks floating around in my head, all I do is grab a piece of paper, and a pen and I write it all down.

Every single thing that is in my head floats around even the tiny ones, like feeding the dog, bathing the dog, and all of the personal tasks, as well as all of the business tasks. If I can get them out of my head and onto paper, it feels like it's now. It's a little bit more in control and it's not just using up that brain space.

Now, I also find it helpful to break each one of these tasks down into smaller tasks. So instead of creating module one of my online course, I would have to outline module 1, create slides for module 1, record module 1 or I could make it even more granular, outline module 1, lesson 1, create slides for module 1 lesson 1.

So that I've got in front of me everything that needs to be done and there's just something so calming about getting them out of my head and having them on paper, seeing them there in front of me. 

 

#2: A, B, Z Framework.

Now, while we don't need to know all of the steps in achieving some kind of big project, we like to fill in the gaps. Our brain is like, Ooh, I need to know all of these steps and I don't know all of the steps. So I'm just going to imagine what they all could be and it ends up being like this big, floaty thing around in our brain, all these imaginary tasks that we've never done before and all of these steps that we don't actually need to, we don't know what we need to do. 

So, the A, B, Z framework focuses on three things. 

A is where you are today. B, is the very next smallest step. So the next step that you need to do towards that end goal and Z or Z is that end goal where you are headed with this. So this is your permission from me to just start moving forward and trust that you will figure it out as you get to each step. 

 

#3: Calendar blocking.

I am guilty of thinking that I can get 15 hours' worth of work done in a five-hour day and while I can get more done in five hours than most people can in a day, I probably can't get 15 hours worth of work done in five hours. Like, I'm not superhuman. So calendar blocking means that I'm taking the tasks I want to get done today.

And I'm mapping them into my calendar based on how long I think they will take and on days when I have calls and meetings, I'm obviously going to get a lot less done. I'm going to have the capacity to get less done. So it shows me where I can fit these tasks in between what's already in my calendar as well.

I use the task management tool SunSama for this one and I map all of my work and my personal tasks into the same calendar. That way, I know what I need to be working on at any given point in the day and if I finish quicker, it means that I can start that next task. And if I finish that next task quicker and I finish all of my tasks for that day quicker, it means I can finish my day earlier. And that is really motivating, especially when it's sunny outside and I want to go and do something fun. 

The other reason why I like calendar blocking is it means that I can complete my to-do list for the day. It means that I'm not just piling all these tasks onto a list and continually rolling them over from day to day, at least I can get to the end of my to-do list for that day and get that sense of satisfaction rather than that feeling of guilt that I just haven't managed to get enough done today.

 

#4: Deleting tasks.

Those tasks that have been on your to-do list forever, that you just keep carrying forward, they've been there for months and months and every day you're like, next Thursday is going to be the right day for me to do that task, and then next Thursday rolls around and you're like, Oh no, I'm going to do that one tomorrow. Then tomorrow rolls around and you're like, Oh, maybe next Wednesday and it just keeps moving forward. 

I have come to accept that some of these things I will never actually get to so I delete them or in Sunsama, I can archive them into my backlog list so I'm not permanently deleting them, but they're sitting there in this list of backlog tasks that one day, if I want to, I can go and pull the task out and do it. But it's not sitting on my to-do list, getting carried forward forever and I'm not continually guilting myself for not doing this one thing.

 

#5: Prioritising.

Not doing everything all at once, or in other words, prioritising. Which is easier said than done, I think. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that yes, I can do anything. No, I can't do everything and I definitely can't do it all today like I want to.

Everything that you are saying yes to, you are having to say no to something else and it really comes back to what actually matters. What is actually important? What is moving you closer to your vision versus what are you making important that isn't important at all? What are you prioritising that's not moving the needle?

Unless you know what your priorities are at any given point in your business, it's really easy to find yourself feeling overwhelmed because you just have no direction, you're really scattered. Unless you don't know what vision you are working towards, you're going to find it really hard to know what priorities you need to prioritise. 

 

#6: Planning.

Strategic planning for the year, for the quarter and for the month, essentially breaking it down into goals.

As a team, we do quarterly planning now, and we do annual planning and quarterly planning. We review the last quarter and we set goals for the next quarter and then we turn those goals into action steps and even though we've been doing it for a little while now, I'm still guilty of putting way too many things in our goals list for the quarter.

And then we realise when we start to do it, like, Oh, we might not be able to get all of this done but the main thing is that it's giving us direction, right? We know as a team, what to focus on and then when things get busy or I get a little bit distracted by a shiny object, I still know what needs to happen to reach those quarterly goals and then that helps me with prioritising and where I'm spending my time.

 

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