When you’re the owner of a business, it can feel like there are never enough hours in the day. Sometimes it feels like you’re just trying to keep your head above water. It’s easy to become bogged down when there are a million things to do and not enough time to do them.
Is running a business supposed to be this hard? No one said owning your own business would be easy, but it’s not meant to be overwhelming either. You’re likely being too hard on yourself, forcing success, and lacking a clear picture of running your business based on your values and intentions.
To feel less overwhelmed at work, you need clarity in your self-knowledge, direction, and environment. You will be inspired to run your business once everything is clear and on track. Then you will accomplish more and have time with family and friends.
If you’re currently feeling overwhelmed, here are 15 tips to help you when feeling overwhelmed at work. These strategies will help you feel clear, more confident, and ready to take action.
What Causes the Feeling of Being Overwhelmed With Work?
When you’re overwhelmed with your business, it can feel like you’re drowning while everything around you is spinning upside down. It’s intense, and even the people around you can see and feel how it’s slowly destroying you. This overwhelming feeling can affect your ability to think and act rationally. It can also prevent you from performing daily tasks.
Here are some reasons why you’re overwhelmed with work:
- No clarity of goals. No direction and unclear values.
- Lack of vision. Lack of belief in your vision.
- Scattered energy, wasted effort, and resources.
- Following consultant or course without results.
- Lack of planning, discipline, and accountability.
There’s a lot in the list, but let’s not emphasize that. I want you to understand that these causes have practical solutions, and we’ll discuss them in this blog post.
15 Tips When You’re Overwhelmed With Work
Before we get started with these tips, I want you to get into perspective. The overwhelming feeling is not permanent, and we can overcome it as long as we commit to it.
Picture a before and after scenario for yourself:
Before: You feel you’re not moving forward, stuck, have no time, no gains, can’t start, don’t know who to go to for help, you’ve missed moments of life. Working 24/7 365, you can become “blind” to essential.
After: You will feel you are contributing more. You’ll feel more present when you’re at home, feel more present when you’re working. You will feel productive, more confident, more self-assured.
Feels much better already, doesn’t it? Now you’re ready to internalize the 15 tips below.
TIP #1: Clarity of Self-Knowledge
Clarity of self-knowledge simply understands your values, purpose, mission, your innate genius, your emotional patterns, and understanding.
What makes you tick in the first place?
What motivates you to keep your company running?
What motivates you to do what you do?
When you’re aware of your strengths and weaknesses and manage them at work, becoming more self-aware allows you to better relate to your coworkers, direct reports, and family, resulting in a more pleasant environment.
TIP #2: Clarity of Direction
You don’t need to be fixed. What you need is understanding, acceptance, and direction. I can’t tell you how empowered you will feel once you realize who you truly are. Understand the path you want to pursue. Then you’ll realize what environment you’ll need to build to live the life you’ve always wanted.
You’ll begin prioritizing your objectives to rank your actions from greatest to lowest priority task. As a result, you’ll always be doing what’s most important.
Clarity of direction helps determine which strategies to implement and prioritize a focused action plan consistent with your values. It will make you feel more in charge, as well as reliable and consistent. You’ll also feel more secure in the knowledge that your company is well-managed.
TIP #3 Clarity of Environment
Do you ever feel like you’re going to fail? Or perhaps you believe you can handle everything on your own? It’s no surprise that you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Take a look at the environment’s clarity. Now, this does not necessarily refer to the physical office or company with which you are associated. It relates to the support system that surrounds you. What kind of people do you have on your team? What are your tools, technology, investment plan, and ideal clients?
Do the math, hire people to help you, and move, but do so consciously rather than emotionally.
You’ll be relieved to know where you’re heading, what your surroundings should be, and what kind of help you’ll need. Clarity will relieve pressure and stress. You will have self-assurance. You’ll feel more focused and motivated as you work to create a welcoming environment for your company.
TIP # 4 Roles and Positions: Hire the Right People
Revisit this factor whenever you’re overwhelmed, as you might not have the right people on your bus. The first step to finding the right people is defining who you are, your values. These can be your company’s fundamental beliefs – a short list of essential guiding principles.
When you are clear about your values, you will see that they attract people who share your values. This is critical because individuals who do not share your values will harm the team and organization. As a result, once you’ve defined your values, you’ll need to hire, fire, review, reward, and recognize people by them.
TIP # 5 Delegate Properly
You will frequently be expected to be a jack of all trades while starting a business. Manufacturing, sales, marketing, finances, distribution, and anything else that comes up daily may all fall under your umbrella. Keeping up with everything is tricky and harmful to you and your company.
Delegating duties gives you time to reflect, establish plans, and plan for the future. To be an effective leader, you must work on your business rather than in it, which can only be accomplished through proper delegation.
You will feel accomplished and humbled if you delegate effectively. You’ll be proud of what your team can accomplish. You’ll adore your staff, and they’ll love you in return. Your business will be rock solid and flourishing, and you will have high levels of confidence and certainty.
TIP # 6 Correct Use of Resources
There’s a good possibility you already have everything you need to manage your business. You’re just not making the most of it, and you keep trying new trainings, seminars, and tools that you don’t need. You’re suddenly overloaded with a lot of extra expenses. You’re worried about the money, time, mental energy, and opportunities lost.
Formulate your strategy, and your needs and desires will be guided by the clarity of organizational and operational needs, not by catchy marketing ads you see online.
With a clear picture of what you need, you can determine what is and is not a good investment. Since you have a strategy, you won’t have to look for solutions until you need them. And if you are focused on your strategy and plan, marketing messages from “quick-fix” programs will not affect you.
TIP # 7 Plan Ahead
Planning gives your company a clear direction when laying out your goals. You make a plan for the path you want your company to take, and the plan lays out how you’ll get there.
Before you can look ahead, you must first understand where your company stands right now. This involves determining which aspects of your company are successful and which areas may require a change of strategy.
Begin by being attentive in the first ten minutes of your workday. Visit https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-spend-first-ten-minutes-your-workday-infographic/ for more information.
TIP # 8 Prioritize Tasks According to Urgency
Do you know how triage works in medicine? You can use a triage system to organize how you handle work in your company. Triage is a management system that prioritizes incoming workflows to complete critical tasks.
Some entrepreneurs have a bad tendency to prioritize less important work over urgent tasks, allowing them to fall behind and rush to accomplish them.
A clear plan is guided by clarity of direction. Your strategy should be to establish an environment that supports the actions and tasks in order of priority. You’ll spend your days with high-value activities while ignoring low-value duties. You’ll have a sense of accomplishment and productivity!
TIP # 9 Get the Ideal Client
When you don’t know who to market to, you advertise to everyone, which is a surefire way to fail and feel overwhelmed. The scope of your marketing efforts can be narrowed by identifying your ideal client, allowing you to spend your marketing resources more efficiently.
Client attraction is more effective when you clarify your ideal clients and marketplaces. You’ll get greater and better customers. You’ll get more repeat and referral business because you’re dealing with your ideal clients.
Marketing your business becomes more accessible and cost-effective once you have a clear picture of your ideal client. Instead of broadcasting your marketing messages to the world, you can focus your efforts on the clients who are most likely to buy from you.
TIP # 10 Take a Break
You may even believe that taking time off is unaffordable or that you may lose clients while you are away. However, taking time off and getting away from work is essential for your health and mental well-being. That will help you and your company in the long run.
When running a startup business, you probably don’t get to visit your family as much as you’d want. Taking a break from work allows you to reconnect with your family and friends, and it’s just as vital to invest in supporting connections as it is to invest in your health.
Take some time to read up on how to strike a healthy work/life balance, and don’t be afraid to seek help from those around you when you need it. Someone might help you with your workload or give you sound advice.
TIP # 11 Make a Reflection
When I say this, I don’t mean looking in the mirror. Making a reflection means you distill the opinions of others about your words and deeds. To answer the following questions, collect information from people you trust, such as coaches, colleagues, and mentors. You also gather the viewpoints of prominent detractors.
- What changes in my approach will help me achieve a better result?
- What am I avoiding?
- What am I overlooking?
- What should I do next?
- What kind of feedback am I getting?
You can select which changes will produce better results and make the necessary adjustments based on the insights gained from the responses you received. The result is an honest assessment of what’s essential.
TIP # 12 Revisit Your Intentions and Values
You have a set of values that decide whether you are content with life, whether you realize them or not. Recognizing and integrating your values with what you do in your professional and personal life will help you live a less overwhelmed and more fulfilling life.
If you value your family but are required to spend 80 hours per week at your job, you will be internally conflicted. Alternatively, you will feel stifled if you value professional development but are trapped with administrative responsibilities (no matter how vital).
TIP # 13 Write It Down
The minute you start to feel overwhelmed, take a step back and try to figure out what your worries are. If the answer is unknown or not as simple for you at this moment, then move on with caution!
Focusing solely on tackling one problem at a time will allow more space between them, so they don’t pile up before overwhelming you completely.
Sometimes, we need to draw a picture of our feelings. Sometimes they’re so big and complex that drawing them on paper doesn’t do justice for how tough these moments in life can be. Journaling is an incredible way to process your thoughts, small finds, or even just everyday life.
Many of us fear that we don’t accept or even realize. If left unaddressed, this may lead to harmful behaviors, such as procrastination and avoidance, which ultimately prevent the achievement of one’s life goals.
TIP #14 Set a Realistic Expectation on Your Business
Fear arises when your expectations are either high or too low. To keep your expectations in check, have a solid business and personal financial plan in place, as well as a system for reporting and forecasting. You’ll attract more and more customers. You’ll earn more repeat and referral business because you’re working with ideal clients more regularly.
TIP #15 Find a Business Coach
Reach out to a proven business coach like Bill Foss to talk about your thoughts and hold yourself accountable for overcoming being overwhelmed at work. Seek trusted friends and colleagues to help you overcome obstacles or complete tasks.
Winning Over Your Feelings
Nothing will change if you do nothing. The overwhelming feeling will always haunt you. And here’s the thing. Most people do not realize that long-term change is hard and want to feel good. Unfortunately, this is what keeps us stuck.
Remember, the first step in winning over those overwhelming feelings is when you recognize who you truly are. Understanding who you are, aligning with a clear sense of direction, and aligning with a clear sense of your environment to achieve a vision that serves your life, lifestyle, and way of life is what a business is supposed to do.
Most people are unaware that we only have power over three things: our perceptions, decisions, and actions. Our decisions and actions will align with who we are if we can align ourselves with self-knowledge, clarity of direction, and clarity of environment. And success will be much easier to come by.
Let me help you be more in control of your business! Worry less and do more with my coaching sessions and Business Alignment Program! Click here to start your free session today: https://www.billfoss.com/BAAStratSession.