What if overcoming business overwhelm didn't feel so complicated and frustrating and difficult? What if you could more easily manage your entrepreneurial overwhelm in just 30 seconds? In this video, I'm going to share with you exactly that: three 30-second techniques for how to overcome small business overwhelm…
All videos in the Solo Entrepreneur Overwhelm series:
- Top 3 Things You NEED to Know About Freelancer Overwhelm
- Small Business Overwhelm Assessment
- How to Overcome Small Business Overwhelm in 30 Seconds (that's this one!)
- Step by Step Guide to Beat Freelancer Overwhelm for Good
How to Overcome Small Business Overwhelm in 30 Seconds...
30-second technique #1 to manage your entrepreneurial overwhelm:
Go through your entire task list, and for each item, ask yourself this question — don't think too hard, just ask yourself this question — Can this wait until tomorrow?
All you need is a simple yes or no response. And even if there's the word “but’ after a yes, the answer is still yes. So if you're going through your task list and you see different items and you're thinking to yourself, “Yes, it can wait till tomorrow, but what about XYZ...” — that doesn't matter. Clear that away. The important thing is your answer is yes, it can wait until tomorrow.
Go through your entire task list, and then check how many are in the no column. Did doing this little exercise whittle down your business tasks? Does your to do list seem a little bit more manageable now and a little bit less overwhelming?
Here's the fun trick to this: You do not necessarily need to postpone all of the yeses until tomorrow or sometime in the future. This is a thought exercise. You don't necessarily need to put it into practice.
The purpose of this is that it allows you to see what is the priority that needs to be done today. That way you can focus on actually getting it done and crossing it off your list, and you can really see what is actually urgent in my business.
Because when you are overwhelmed, you probably feel as though everything is urgent — but when you go through this little exercise, you'll start to realize that okay, if this doesn't get done today, it's maybe not the end of the world.
From there, you might find that this relieves that burden of overwhelm from your shoulders, at least just a little bit. And it might actually increase your energy to be able to do more from your list. So once you've kind of prioritized them, you've been able to recognize these are the things that actually need to be done today, then you can focus more on those particular tasks. And you might find that it kind of energizes you because you actually start to cross things off your list. And because it feels less overwhelming, you're able to keep moving forward with it. That's pretty cool!
Does this concept intrigue you? If so, then grab my free Personality-Based Productivity Training!
It’s the perfect place to learn more about productivity tricks that you can use to solve all of your business problems, including overwhelm:
30-second technique #2 for how to overcome small business overwhelm:
Emotional Freedom Techniques or tapping to ground yourself. Emotional Freedom Techniques uses acupressure points and self coaching to help you work through various feelings and to help you shift from one state to another.
Since we are focused on 30-second techniques for this particular video, we're just going to focus on one particular point for tapping, and that is your wrists. So you're going to tap your wrists together. Tap them together. That is going to activate that acupressure point, and as you're tapping them, repeat to yourself: “Overwhelm is a state of mind. Overwhelm is a state of mind. Overwhelm is a state of mind.”
Now in case you missed it a couple of videos ago on my YouTube channel and this blog, we actually talked about this whole concept of overwhelm being a state of mind and a perspective. So if you missed that, HERE’S THE LINK TO WATCH THAT VIDEO, because it's going to be really, really helpful for that perspective shift.
As you are doing this, breathe deeply. You could breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts, and then breathe out for eight counts. And that's going to also contribute to the groundedness of this exercise
30-second technique #3 to manage solo entrepreneur overwhelm:
Make a 5% shift in perspective and positioning. Since overwhelm is based in your perspective, you will want to shift your perspective — but it can be difficult to tear yourself away into a full 180.
Instead, try a tiny shift: What would be a 5% movement out of your current state? For example, does the simple act of thinking of your overwhelm as an internal safety mechanism, does that help you to shift how you view it and shift your understanding of it?
If so, then that's great! You have already made a little percentage shift.
When you have made the tiniest mindset shift, then you can make the tiniest physical shift. For example, complete 5% of a task that you've set for yourself for today. You don't need to complete the entire thing, just 5% of it.
You may discover that doing these 5% micro shifts help to spur you on to keep doing more. And if that happens, that is wonderful — and/but, that's not really the purpose of this. The purpose here is not so much about crossing tasks off your list, but rather releasing the power that overwhelm has over you at this particular moment in time.
That is one of the things that micro shifts can do for you.
Where to go from here…
There you have it: Those are three 30-second techniques for how to overcome small business overwhelm.
And of course, these 30-second techniques to manage small business overwhelm are just the tip of the iceberg. The purpose of this is to get you into a state of beating the overwhelm once and for all…
Stay tuned for our next video: I will share my step by step process for how to beat overwhelm as a freelancer (or other solo entrepreneur) and enjoy a true lifestyle business model. It is perfect for small business owners in any industry who are running a one person business!