When you’re building a business, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed at times. The problem with overwhelm is that it plays tricks on your mind and it becomes difficult to know what to do next. You can get busy “being busy” without taking productive action.
Because of this reality, you need to develop a process of prioritizing tasks so you’re able to clarify what matters most when you feel like you’re in an emotional fog.
Implement these 5 simple steps to disarm your feelings of overwhelm and make exponential progress:
1. Make a List
Simply getting tasks and ideas out of your head and onto paper is a big first step toward prioritizing well. When things are swirling around in your mind, it can consume you and burn mental energy that detracts from taking productive action. Make a list to clear your mind.
2. Rank Your Items
Once you’ve completed your “brain dump”, spend a few minutes ranking your items on the list based on importance and time sensitivity. Some things that may feel pressing can be put off a few days, weeks, or even months. Some things that seem like you can delay may need to rise to the top. Evaluate based on the impact on your business growth, not just what seems easy or difficult in the moment.
3. Block Your Time
Success mentor Darren Hardy once said, “If it’s important enough to be on your to-do list, it’s important enough to be on your calendar.” This can be a transformational mindset shift when you put it into practice. Transfer your highest-ranking items on your task list to specific blocks of time on your calendar. First, tell your calendar what needs to be done, then let your calendar tell you what to do and when to do it. Strategic planning on the front-end can pay huge dividends on the back-end.
4. Take Action
When you look at your weekly and daily calendar slots, do what you blocked time to do. Hold yourself accountable for accomplishing the tasks that you previously deemed most valuable. When you begin taking action, you’ll begin to feel a sense of accomplishment and the overwhelm will begin to melt away. If you need more help, enlist an accountability partner to help you stay on track.
5. Review and Adjust
Now that you’ve taken the previous four steps, block time each week to look backward and forward. What did you accomplish? Celebrate that! What didn’t go well? Reflect on how to improve next time. What’s coming up? Make sure to schedule the most important tasks in your high-energy time slots each week when you can focus and work the best.
When you implement these five simple steps, you’ll begin to see immediate improvement. You will have a repeatable process to clear your head of all the things that feel overwhelming and to strategically take action so you can move forward in your business and life.
Remember that building a business takes time. Yes, you can expedite some things with strategic implementation, but allow yourself the space and grace required to tackle one item at a time. Look at each item you accomplish as one more brick that you’re stacking on top of others to build something of significance.
If you’re not already a member of the Design Launch Grow coaching program and you would like help building a business around your message that generates consistent income month after month, then check out Design Launch Grow today!