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One of the biggest issues I hear from entrepreneurs is how much they struggle with overwhelm. Unfortunately there’s no easy answer to get you out of overwhelm completely, but if you start making a habit of the below 3 tips, chances are your life is going to get a lot easier.
1. Get very clear on exactly what you personally should be doing. Look I get it. For years I had a very busy feast-or-famine freelance copywriting business. I know what it’s like to go at your business alone and just how many tasks you’re trying to squeeze into your days.
But the reality is there are only so many hours a day. And there are so many things you can do in one day. And if you’re not clear on the top activities you should be doing, you can quickly find yourself spending hours on tasks that other people should really be doing (or maybe even things that don’t need to get done at all).
Now once you’re clear on what you should and shouldn’t be doing, what do you do with the tasks you shouldn’t be doing but still need to be done? Well that’s where tip #2 comes in.
2. Surround yourself with a team that supports you because they do the tasks you shouldn’t be doing. It’s not just enough to build a team if that team isn’t actually taking things off your plate. The entire point is to have a team that frees you up to focus on your highest-payoff activities.
Now what do you do when you can’t afford a team? Well, what I always say is start small. Maybe 10 hours a month for bookkeeping or to start scheduling appointments. And then you make sure you take those 10 hours and do something that brings you income.
However, for this to work, you need to really make sure you do devote 10 hours to revenue-generating activities, which leads me to my third tip.
3. Set and maintain boundaries. This is probably the biggest tip of all. From my experience, entrepreneurs who are suffer the least from overwhelm are also the best at setting boundaries.
So what do I mean by setting and maintaining boundaries? Here’s a partial list:
* If you’ve committed to 10 hours a month of revenue-generating activities to pay for your monthly bookkeeper, then you spend that time doing revenue-generating activities.
* You allow your team to do their work and support you — YOU don’t start doing their work because it’s “easier” than delegating
* You work during those times you designated as working time, and you don’t work during those times you have other plans. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t get up early in the morning or stay up late to finish a project — what this means is you discipline yourself to work when you’re supposed to (and don’t allow distractions to keep you from getting your work done) and don’t work when you should be doing something else — for instance skipping your workout class or cancelling girl’s night out or not showing up for your child’s soccer game.
This one is probably the hardest to do but if you can master it, it will do wonders to helping you get out of overwhelm.
Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! Marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a premiere direct response copywriting and marketing company that helps entrepreneurs attract more clients, sell more products and services and boost their business. To grab your FREE “Ka-Ching! Business Kit” with a FREE CD visit http://www.MichelePW.com/freecd
