Introduction

If you’re experiencing overwhelm, chances are you’re feeling pretty stressed. This stressful state, if it continues, will do damage to yourself and your business. The good news is that there is a way out of stress and overwhelm. But until you’re fully aware of your current situation, you can’t do anything to change it.

In this first module, you’ll identify your starting point so you can move forward to make improvements.

What’s Stressing You Out Most?

Though overwhelm is an extremely common feeling among business owners, many struggle to find healthy, productive ways to cope with it.

The feeling of overwhelm often comes when you don’t have enough time to finish a task, or you’re left with a long to-do list at the end of the day. When you’re in business, there is always more you could do. You don’t have enough hours in the day to do absolutely everything. Accept that as a given. It’s your starting point so you can get on your way to finding a positive solution.

Acknowledge how you feel and don’t pretend everything is fine. Until you’re aware that there is a situation that needs tackling, you won’t be able to do anything to improve it.

Overwhelm and stress go hand in hand. Stress is our reaction to an outside stimulus, not the stimulus itself. It’s an individual response which is different for everyone.

Let’s say that you’re worried about making enough income this month and your accountant calls you. For some people, as soon as they see the accountant’s number flash up on their ‘phone, they’ll immediately feel stressed because they worry it’s bad financial news. For someone else, seeing that number might make them think, “Great! This must mean my tax rebate has come through.”  The stimulus is the same (the accountant calling you) but the response is different.

The first step to reducing stress is to identify common stressors in your life.

Events like the death of a partner, a divorce, moving house, etc. rate high on the list of life stressors for everybody, but you will have your own individual pressures to which you respond either negatively or positively.

To get a handle on your stressors, complete this exercise:

1. Make a list of your external sources of pressure at the moment. These could be things like unclear objectives, insufficient revenue, chronic illness, not enough people to delegate to, cramped workspace, lack of help in the home, and so on. There are no predefined ‘major’ or ‘minor’ stessors – it’s how you view them that counts.

2. Once you’ve made your list, think about what you can do to change things. If you aren’t prepared to take that action, then note that. In almost every situation in life there is an element of choice, even though it sometimes doesn’t feel that way. For example, if you work from home in a corner of your bedroom and feel that your business is invading your personal life, you could explore the option of using another room, adding on an extension to your home, or renting office space nearby. Some people facing this stressor will act on these alternatives, but many will not. An important way to relieve pressure is to accept that you have choice. Even if you choose to do nothing, you have exercised that choice.

3. Review your list and your action points. How do you feel about each situation now?

Where Are You Spending Your Time?

You now know and accept that you won’t get everything done every day. But you’d still like to find more time in the day.

Often, people are unaware of how they really spend their time. They may have a vague idea, but they aren’t sure of the specifics. In order to really assess how you spend your day, you need to collect some data on yourself.

The first step is to not assume that you already know exactly how you spend your time. You won’t really know until you record all your activities during a typical work week. You may find that you’re spending hours on things you hadn’t even realized were taking up your time.

Performing an audit of your time is tedious, but well worth doing. The results may surprise you and reveal places where you can free up hours in your week by spending your time more wisely.

Complete the time audit exercise we’ve provided. You’ll be returning to this time audit at regular points during the course as a data source.

For now, look at the results as a whole and note down:

• What surprised me?
• What pleased me?
• What could I cut or change immediately?

Revisit Your Big “Why?”

You started your business for a reason. You had a vision and a goal. However, this initial motivation can easily get lost in the day-to-day of running your business. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s likely that you’re struggling to keep your head above water and certainly not thinking about why you created this business in the first place.

Losing sight of your big “Why?” for starting your business is a sure path to overwhelm. You need to keep that motivation with you all the time to keep you going through the challenges of running a business. If you don’t keep your big “Why?” in mind, you’ll be more likely to spend time on peripheral activities instead of focusing on the main tasks that will help you achieve your goals. In other words, you’ll waste precious time going down blind alleys away from your main route.

Think again about why you started your business in the first place. Was it to buy your dream home, lead a laptop lifestyle, have the freedom to work whenever and wherever you want to, share a skill that would change people’s lives? Each entrepreneur is different and your motivation won’t be the same as anyone else’s. These are your high-level reasons. You’ll be redefining your key business goals in a later module.

As you’re thinking about your goals, try to reconnect with the excitement you felt about starting your business and the possibility of achieving your dreams.