Let me tell you something. I sometimes get a sense of overwhelm with my work when my goals seem too far from where I am. Most humans do.
I think of all the things I need to do to ensure I hit that goal and sometimes the sheer number of activities and time it will take for me to get them done, seems like an uphill battle.
When I start to feel overwhelmed, I lose steam, get deflated and frustrated and crawl into bed to just escape it all.
Do you know the worst part of it all? Trying to escape the challenge doesn’t make it go away. When I wake up, it will still be there. It is only by confronting it that it eventually goes away.
Here’s what I do when I finally summon the courage to face my challenges, and you can do it too:
I make a list of all the things I need to do, and label them like this:
1. Urgent (What needs to be done right now). These are my top priorities. They could be returning a phone call, responding to an email or sending reminders for an upcoming event or offer, paying my business expenses.
2. Important but not urgent (What needs to be done but not right away). I then put a date to these activities and set reminders on my calendar.
3. Can be delegated (What I don’t need to do, that can be done by someone else). These are tasks that either my Assistant can do, or that a Freelancer can do. Things like designing graphics, approving group posts and join requests, answering to customer enquiries, Instagram updates and other non-profit making and creative activities. I make a list and send to my Assistant to work on.
Once I have made this list, the task becomes less daunting and I am able to focus on the urgent ones and get them done.
Most times I find that those urgent tasks do not take more than 5 minutes to complete. Completing them takes the pressure off of me so I can then rest up or focus on the other important but not urgent tasks.
Remember, make a list, label your tasks accordingly and then tick the urgent ones off the list. You will feel much better after you’ve done so. just focus on doing one thing at a time.
