How to Manage When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed

I was gonna start today's episode by asking if you've ever had so much going on to the point that you feel panicked and overwhelmed but you know, I don't think there's any entrepreneur that hasn't been there and got to that point at some time in their career. So let's get to the more important question and that's how do you manage when you're feeling overwhelmed so that you can keep everything on track and meet your goals without burning out? Hey there I'm a Nafissa Shireen, success coach and business strategist for entrepreneurs and welcome to Living Forward TV where we help you to create a thriving business you absolutely love all around your personal freedom. Now here's the thing, creating a life of freedom isn't a free ride, you've got to do the work. But burnout from overwhelm is not a mandatory rite of passage on the road to freedom. Today I'm going to share with you the seven steps you can take to manage your emotions and your commitments when you're feeling overwhelmed. And make sure to watch until the end because what I'm sharing with you will turn your chaos into calm. And I'm also going to share with you how to get the same simple time and activity management system that I use in my own business that will really free you up as the owner of your business. You wear so many hats and you've gotta balance between working on your business to grow it and working in your business to deliver your services and then when you throw in the personal and family commitments you can sometimes feel like you'll just never get it done. Advancement panic sets in and even worse this kind of thinking shuts down your problem-solving ability. So when it gets to that point the first thing you need to do is stop. That's right just stop. Give yourself some physical emotional and mental space away from everything. Do something totally different, interrupt your pattern, get a manicure, go for a walk or bike ride, window shop, heck go to Starbucks and people-watch. Basically you want to do anything but what you think you have to do. This is so that everything that's buried in the recesses of your mind has a chance to percolate and to come to the surface for step two which is to brain dump. When you're done your break, come back, grab your favorite chair get a pen and a notebook, a cup of tea or a glass of wine, and just start writing. Get granular, don't filter it even if it's something you're intending to do in half an hour from now write it down. Everything that's coming up for you professional and personal. That might be writing a blog, making a phone call, client deliverables, taking your dog to the vet, or even calling your mom, just write it down. Everything the short-term and the long-term. If it's taking space in your head get it out and even though this is likely going to be a really long list, this exercise will bring you so much in relief because it's no longer swirling as chaos in your mind. And by writing it all down you tap back into your problem-solving ability which brings us to step three. I call it the sticky step because it's uncomfortable and it's about getting really clear on whose priority it is anyway. One of the biggest causes of overwhelm and stress is when we take on other people's priorities as our own and then it's things we don't even want to do and we put our stuff on the back burner. I want you to go through this list and be brutally honest about which of your to-dos are actually someone else's priorities. And look, I get it, we all want to be liked and to be helpful. But if it's costing you your own peace of mind and your own goals, it's not worth doing it. And no, it's not comfortable, that's why I call this the sticky step and managing expectations and setting boundaries is a topic for another episode. For today's purpose, on managing overwhelm, all I want you to do is get clear on which of those tasks belong to someone else and put them on a separate list and then put it away. This way you're not saying no you're just putting them on pause until your priorities are taken care of. And then we go to step four which is defer. Is there anything on your list that you want to do but you know it really isn't a priority right now? You know maybe you want to update your lead magnet but the one you have is still kind of working or maybe you want to implement a new filing system or revamp the look of your newsletter. While all of these things are important, the short-term benefits of some of the items on your list is negligible and what I want you to do is to take all of those and move them to a separate list and call it your defer list. This way it's not taking up precious space in your mind and emotions and it's not forgotten and it still has value and you can get back to that when you have the bandwidth. Step 5, my favorite, is to delegate. I'm guessing that there's a lot of stuff on your list that needs to be done but it doesn't need to be done by you. So identify what tasks you can delegate and then get some help. And please be willing to let go and just trust here. Don't hang on to it thinking is just easier, I'll do it. Because yeah, maybe some tasks take longer to teach somebody than to just do them but that's short-term thinking. Give your team the flexibility and latitude to learn so that they take some of the stuff off your plate for good. If you don't have team yet then being overwhelmed is a really good sign it's time to consider it and I'm going to link in the show notes below to a previous episode where I teach you how to have team when the budget is tight. Step six is to delete. On this much smaller list, I bet there's things that are there that really don't need to be done that you're not that interested in. You know what, just cross it off get it out of your world. It doesn't need to be there. And finally, step seven is get it done. Now what you should have in front of you is a really focused list of your most important priorities that only you can do. And since it's not all swirling in your head you'll have both the mental and emotional whitespace to be able to manage it from a very empowered calm and deliberate space. And while there are different ways to manage activities I use a very simple activity and planning system that gets these objectives on my calendar because what gets calendered, gets done. And this system has freed up so much time for me and my clients and I'm also gonna link to that below because I've prepared a quick tutorial for you with some video screencasts and handouts so make sure to grab it. You can just click the link below this video or go to nafissashireen.com/38download. And there you have it, the 7 steps to managing when you feel overwhelmed and turning chaos into calm. If you found today's episode helpful make sure to give me a thumbs up, share this with your friends, and let me know what you found most helpful in the comments below. And of course don't forget to subscribe to my channel. And if you have more questions or need more help than I'd like to invite you to join me in the Living Forward Facebook Community. I come to live each week on "After the Episode" to take your questions. It's also a great place to build your network and build your business. Simply go to livingforwardcommunity.com, click the "Join Now" button and I'll see you on the inside.