This is the second of two posts that explore the issue of overwhelm. If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, you should definitely go back and start there since it explains what overwhelm is really all about (spoiler alert: it’s all in your head!) and how it can affect entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
As business owners, we all have the tendency to get overwhelmed from time to time. There’s so much to do, so many decisions to make, and so much riding on our shoulders.
The bottom line is this: if you’re overwhelmed, you’re in good company. It happens to almost everyone I talk to. The good news is you can beat it, easily.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve identified two types of overwhelm that can affect entrepreneurs at various stages of their business. In Part 1, I talked about information overload, which can quite easily lead to feelings of overwhelm among new business owners.
Today I want to tell you all about the second type: task overload. This is when there’s so much that needs to be done that you feel like your drowning, your weighty to-do list dragging you down like an anchor.
If this describes you and where you’re at in your business, keep reading. I have a strategy to help you catch your breath and carry on swimming!
What Task Overload Looks Like
New business owners often misdiagnose their overwhelm as a fatal case of too-much-to-do, but they’re usually in the information overload group and just don’t realize it.
The difference between the two is actually kind of subtle, but it’s important to try your best to figure out which category your overwhelm falls into so that you can know how to work your way out of it.
The task-overload category of overwhelm is often where more experienced business owners lie. You know you’re in task overload when:
- You’ve got three to 17 projects going at one time.
- Your calendar is booked solid.
- You have a hard time saying no.
- Your work is taking over your nights and weekends.
- You’re missing out on other important parts of your life.
- You have no time to rest, recharge, or do the things you love.
You Can Find Your Way Through Task-Overload Overwhelm
The steps to overcoming overwhelm, whether due to having too much to do or too much information, all boil down to getting organized and setting priorities. In fact, the same steps from Part 1 apply here, too: get quiet, get clear, and get going.
Get Quiet.
You’ve definitely got a lot of things on your to-do list, but are you absolutely sure it’s too much? And if it is too much, do you have any idea how to weed through it all so that you can take the right action at the right time?
These are huge questions! To answer them, you have to first shut out all the noise and make your mind a nice, quiet oasis for making decisions. The best way to do this? Get everything out of your head, where it’s just causing trouble, and on paper, where it can be looked at critcally.
Grab a pen and notepad and start writing out every single thing on your mental to-do list — stuff for your business, things your family needs, that dry cleaning you’ve been meaning to pick up for weeks — EVERYTHING! Purge it all, being as specific and thorough as you can.
After you finish dumping any and all to-dos out of your brain, you can take a crack at organizing the mess in a way that makes sense to you. Maybe there should be separate categories for short, medium and long-term goals; columns for home, work, and personal; or even a spectrum of easiest to most complicated. Whatever floats your boat!
Get Clear.
Sometimes feeling like you have too much to do is actually just a lack of organization. And hey, no judgment — it happens to all of us.
To find out if this applies to you, go ahead and go through your tasks one-by-one, adding real deadlines to each item. Then rearrange that list in due-date order so that you can see clearly what the demands on your time really are and in what order things need to get done.
You might find your task list is actually totally manageable once you impose some order on it. Plus, you’ve just created an awesome plan of action for going forward!
Now, after doing all of this organizing, you might realize that you’re actually in worse shape than you thought. (Please resist the urge to run away screaming. It gets better!)
Sometimes that I-have-way-too-much-to-do feeling is totally on point. If this is the case, then the only answer is to take some stuff off of your plate. I know, I know. You hate this idea. My friend, if you’re running ragged and burning out, there is just no other way.
Here’s how to do it: Get super clear on your priorities by identifying what is most important to you in building your dream business. It might help to spend a few minutes first reminding yourself of the big goals you set at the beginning of your journey.
Next, you have to clear out the non-essentials from your calendar and start crossing low-priority things off that list. (And no, everything is not essential. Nice try!)
That interview you don’t really feel like doing? Don’t do it.
That project you took on but isn’t really in line with where your business is heading? Apologize and back out (suggesting a replacement, if you can).
That favor a friend asked of you but you absolutely, positively have no time for it? Offer a rain check.
That course on professional accounting practices? Unless you’ve been audited lately, it’s probably safe to skip it!
I promise you that everyone involved will understand, as long as you’re professional, courteous, and up-front about saying “no”. As you gain more experience in your business, prioritizing what’s truly important will come more naturally to you.
Get Going.
Now that you have a much more manageable to-do list, it’s time to take action. Execute one task at a time, trust the list, and tune out all other distractions.
Once space starts to open up in your calendar and on your list, take some time to think again about your goals and priorities. If you put something on the back burner before, now might be a good time to pick it back up again.
If you find yourself adding stuff to the list faster than you can cross things off, overwhelm may creep back in. When that happens, though, you’ll know how to deal with it.
Any time you start to feel frozen by the crush of overwhelm, remember to get quiet … get clear … and get going!
Your turn!
One of the best parts of maintaining this blog is creating a space for discussion among all the women who read it. So, tell us…
Have you struggled with task overload with your business?
How do you go about identifying priorities?
Got any tricks for keeping yourself focused on your big business goals?
Leave your wisdom in the comments!
It’s uncanny how your posts always seem to come along at just the right time! How do you get into my head like that!? Thanks Jenny, for all you’ve done and continue to do for me each time I open one of your posts!
Always happy to hear that something lands in the right way at the right time for someone. Thanks, Julie!
Love this Jenny! I always find the minute I get super CLEAR on why I’m doing something, all the noise falls by the way side! Keep up the awesome content – I love reading it, thank you!
Clarity is key! Love that you’ve seen it for yourself, Dominique!
Ha! Perfect timing of this post. Today is a task overload day. I just got off the phone with a friend this morning telling her today was one of those days that I woke up knowing my to-do list will have more things untouched than crossed off. 😉
This post brings me back to one of the most valuable points I’ve learned from you thus far which is clarity. Why the heck am I doing what I’m doing?! It is such a simple yet profoundly deep and incredibly powerful stance to be able to take and I am deeply grateful to you for sharing it and always coming back to that.
Yes!! Ask yourself why you’re doing anything and everything. Clarity is key. So glad this idea has helped you and your biz, Parijat!
Jenny, I spent this past week getting quiet, clear and going, and continued to suffer from overwhelm. So I pulled out another one of your sage pieces of advice and got curious enough to examine my continued overwhelm with a scientific mind. I decided to keep on taking action, while accurately tracking my overwhelm by writing down when overwhelm showed up and all the ways I became distracted and overly emotional while taking action, because clearly I wasn’t clear somewhere.
Sure enough, I found out what my resistance was trying to tell me: I am underwhelmed by my business, not overwhelmed by the volume or nature of the tasks. I’ve got a nice little idea which can truly help some people to overcome a situation that they struggle with, but it is not my entire raison d’etre.
So I will continue to get quiet, clear and going on how to enlarge my mission until I get it right.
You really nailed these steps which I think can be used to get out of whatever pickle we are in when we realize that the thoughts we think are our only hurdles to getting what we want.
What an amazing insight, Deb! Such great clarity for you. It definitely takes persistence in getting quiet and getting clear to see what’s really going on. I love that you committed to figuring it out and are going to keep at it. It will pay off for you, I’m sure o fit. Way to go!
Thanks for this article. I came to it feeling overwhelmed. 🙂
I can definitely use what you’ve said. Actually, I’ve done exactly that and then gotten off track. I think what you’re suggesting isn’t just a one time practice. For solo-preneurs like me, it’s an all the time practice. What I need to manage is continuing to feel overwhelmed after I’ve gotten all the things out of my head and onto the paper.
You’re totally right, Sherri! It is an “all the time” practice and that’s true whether you’re new or experienced. In fact, I set aside a half-hour this morning to do just this for myself bc a project I’m working on started to feel mega-overwhelming. Remembering to always come back to these steps when things get crazy is key. Keep up the good mind-clearing work!