3 Simple Tips to Avoid Overwhelm

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially when running your own business. It doesn’t matter what stage your business is at we all face overwhelm at various points in our business journey.

Feeling overwhelmed is an easy trap to fall into, especially as an entrepreneur.

Throughout my time in business, I’ve taught myself how to manage overwhelm in a way that lets me keep going forward and growing my business.

Sometimes that means writing down everything I need to do so I can see it mapped out, other times that might mean hiring help for the jobs that I don’t need to do myself. Or I may need to set time aside to make sure I’m fully organised.

Here are my top 3 simple tips to avoid overwhelm

HAVE A BRAIN DUMP

Set some time aside in your day where it’s quiet and you won’t get interrupted and get all the to-do lists, jobs and thoughts that are filling your brain out of your head and onto a piece of paper.

Every job big and small, every worry, every deadline. Write them down so you can see them in black and white in front of you.

This will give you a much clearer picture of the projects you have on the go, the steps you need to take to complete them and also prioritise each job and task.

Then rewrite the list, and split it up. First, what are the jobs that you can delegate or hire help for?

Then of the jobs that are left for you which are the most important? Rank them in the level of importance and then work through them one at a time that way.

SET YOURSELF LIMITS

When our to-do list seems too big for us to manage, it can be tempting to just keep going until it’s done, but not switching off only makes overwhelm worse.

One of the best things you can do is allocate yourself some downtime. Set a daily downtime setting on your phone, switch of the PC and laptop. Add an out of hours message on your emails.

Even just a couple of hours a day and at that time do something for you. Run a bath, have a workout, watch a movie. Anything except work.

You and your brain need time to recharge and you will produce better work and avoid overwhelm if you allow yourself this time

CHANGE HOW YOU SEE THINGS

Being a little overwhelmed is actually a good thing because it means you are pushing your limits, doing something new. Attempting to accomplish something amazing so of course that level of growth is bound to feel a little uncomfortable.

So before you let the overwhelm take control, congratulate yourself for pushing your business to the next level and then get on with steps one and two to keep the overwhelm at bay.

Those are my 3 simple tips to avoid overwhelm but I have a fourth bonus tip for you as well. Which is be kind to yourself. Sometimes we hold ourselves to too high a standard and then we are so critical of ourselves when our to-do lists and plans seem too much to manage.

It’s OK to take a step back, it’s OK to feel overwhelmed and it’s OK to ask for help. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Be kind, invest in self-care and remember you are doing great!