Small business owners have a lot on their plates, and we tend to keep on adding more! Entrepreneurs are creative people and as we keep coming up with projects and ideas while trying to run a business all by ourselves things can get complicated fast. Being overwhelmed is not at all uncommon but if you don’t find ways to deal with it you start dropping the ball.
Why are you feeling overwhelmed?
A very common way to get overwhelmed is by trying to do it all by yourself. When you start a business you have to wear all the hats. You are the owner, the manager and the team, but soon enough it starts being too much, and that’s a good thing! A successful business can’t be composed of a single person and the fact that you need help means you’re growing.
There are only 24 hours in a day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed you likely have too many tasks and not enough time. As you try to do it all by yourself new stuff pops up all constantly, you have task lists on scraps of paper and the to-do list keeps getting longer. Admitting you can’t do it all is essential and learning how to prioritize tasks to create a to-do list that is compatible with the time available is crucial.
You have no system to follow, so each time you do something it is like you have never done it before. It not only takes too much time to do something because you forgot a step, but it also causes inconsistency, higher chances of error and makes it harder to train team members in the future.
Jack of all trades and master of none
Doing it all leads to mistakes and poor workmanship. Having too much on your plate causes you to lose focus and makes it hard to prioritize, you have so much to do you don’t even know where to begin. Your tasks end up overlapping and as you are trying to do everything you end up finishing nothing or at least doing it poorly.
Your brilliance is tarnished by the stress of having to do things you aren’t good at. You end up stuck in a cycle of doing daily tasks that are necessary to run your business but it is so much that you never get time to do what you are good at. That makes you feel like you aren’t doing what you want and prevent your business from growing the way you imagined it.
It takes too long to get things done. It will naturally take you longer to do tasks you don’t like and aren’t good at than those you are enthusiastic about. The thing is when you are doing it all you spend a long time stuck on those tasks that aren’t in your genius zone. That makes it much harder and more time consuming to get things done.
Time management – what’s that?
Knowing how long things ACTUALLY take to get done. We tend to underestimate the amount of time we need to complete a task. So we make this beautiful schedule that should help us get everything done, right? But by the end of the day, you are still halfway through all the things you needed to get done, and it is so frustrating.
Putting too many things on your plate every day. When you overestimate what you can do in a day, and that starts happening every day, you can never get to the bottom of your to-do list. Today’s tasks will rollover tomorrow and then tomorrow you won’t be able to finish tomorrow’s tasks because you are still doing the ones from the day before. That gives you this constant overwhelming feeling because you are asking too much of yourself.
Getting lost scrolling through social media because the tasks are too overwhelming. When you feel stressed and don’t know where to begin you end up distracted and prone to procrastination. This then leads to more tasks piling on and turns into a cycle you can’t seem to break.
Do you know when your best time to work is?
When you are in the right frame of mind tasks take less time. For example, when I need to write any kind of copy I know that my best time of day for that is first thing in the morning. I know what types of tasks are better handled during different times of the day. When I need quiet and undisturbed time. When I can be in a busier environment (like a coffee shop). That’s personal to each and every one of us, and finding those sweet spots makes it much easier to get things done more effectively.
Do you make time to take breaks during the day? Taking breaks allows you to recharge, switch gears and be more productive. When you are overtired and at maximum stress level all day long your brain doesn’t work the same, you get slower and tend to make more mistakes. Taking breaks to freshen up, clean your mind and relieve the stress helps you to be way more productive and healthy! And the time you spend on these breaks is much less than the extra time it takes you to do things when you are overtired.
Break up large projects into smaller tasks. Having one big and scary project ahead of you is overwhelming. You get lost thinking about the amount of work it will take and where you should begin. If you break it down into smaller tasks and plan it gets easier. Instead of this big thing, you can get to one little task at a time, which makes it seem way more doable.
End the overwhelm!
Know what tasks you can outsource! You can’t do everything yourself, and that’s a good thing! If anyone can do it, you shouldn’t be doing it. Your time should be focused on the things you do best, so you can grow your business and create what you imagine. Paying someone to free up your time, rapidly starts generating results and profit. Think about it, how much is an hour of your time worth? If you hire someone for $10/hr and you make $25/hr you are already increasing your earnings!
Knowing who to hire to get it done. It’s important to understand what tasks you want to outsource and what type of team member you need. What skills do they need to have? Hiring the right person with the right skills will help you get your projects moving and your business growing.
Knowing how to quickly and easily delegate by having your processes laid out for the tasks you are hiring for. When you hire a new team member you need them to quickly learn how to be a part of your business and how to perform the tasks you need to be done, efficiently and consistently. The best way to do it is by having your processes laid out and documented so you can easily train your team and they have the material to refer back to whenever they need.
Instant Outsourcing Bundle
If you have been failing to honour your commitments, and you have been dropping the ball on things that normally you wouldn’t, it is probably a sign that you are trying to take on too much. There is only so much space in your short term memory, and if you keep filling it to the top with tasks and ideas there is no way that you can successfully grow your business.
Instant Outsourcing Bundle:
- Over 100 tasks to outsource right now
- Each with their own customizable process (to make training a sinch!)
- Knowing which type of VA to hire for best results
- List of skills to look for when hiring your VA (to make hiring easy)
