Ep19 | Overcoming Overwhelm

Welcome back to Clearing the Way. A resource for small business. I talk with sales and HR experts, other small business owners, and anyone else that can provide you with information to clear your way to success. Today's episode is a solo episode. The topic: Overcoming Overwhelm.I've got a couple quick tools that I use when I am caught in overwhelm and feeling unproductive. 1) Make a listIt is super simple. Just write down everything that needs to be done. That alone can and likely will feel like a daunting task, especially when you are the owner of your company. You’ve got a TON on your plate. Don’t overthink it. But just make a list. Not in your head. An actual list. Use your tablet, paper, a napkin. Anything to actually capture the list. The level of detail necessary varies for me. If I am in a really deep slump, I need to be super detailed. If I catch it early, the list can be a little more “surface level”. Some examplesSurface level - “Edit Neal’s video”. “Meet with Joe Bob”Detailed - Find Music. Find Sound effects. Make selections. Edit Rough Cut. Color Grade. Find Joe Bob’s Contact info. Send Joe Bob my Availability. Prep for Joe Bob. As you complete the tasks, mark them off. This is super important for me. If I don't do this step, I get to the end of the day and feel like I haven't done anything. If you are feeling frisky, you can prioritize the list. Don’t spend too much time here though. It is easy to get caught “refining your list” over and over, rethinking whether this is more important than that. 2) Time blockingNext up. Time blocking. Take that precious list that you just created. Open your calendar. Start adding these items to the calendar. I like to do this on Sunday, but do what works for you. I normally add everything for the week at once. You are going to have some things that come up through the week that may derail some of the plan, but stick to it as close as possible.3) Productive ProcrastinationThis one is a little bonus. I am a procrastinator. Especially when I am stuck in these little ruts. I procrastinate and then get to the end of the day knowing that I didn’t get done everything that I needed to. In comes “Productive Procrastination.” These are the things that would be nice to get done, but they aren’t priorities. I use these to help me get into a rhythm. These are generally tasks that I want to work on. Updating business cards, updating your logo, things like that. Clearing the WayApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clearing-the-way/id1632477169Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5j4bJQP9IrjXllbyVb9Td8?si=XsChciA4Qmi45zek91P0tAYouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC70IdR2_OMcE16cmClr1nDAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/clea....ringthewaypodcast/We https://www.didius.us/clearingtheway