Four Ways To Beat Feeling Overwhelmed

Karen

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything that’s on my Todo list these days. And, the list keeps getting longer and longer as I am ready to launch my first paid product.

It seems like there’s no enough hours in the day to get everything done. I wish I could clone myself so that there would be two of me working on everything that I want to get done. But, until the day that cloning becomes viable (and cloning Dolly the sheep doesn’t help me) I have to find other ways to beat feeling overwhelmed.

Here are Four Ways To Beat Feeling Overwhelmed

1. Collaboration / Joint Ventures

“A problem shared is a problem halved”.

If I’m feeling overwhelmed by everything associated with blogging then I’m sure that a lot of other people are, too. It may make sense to reach out to other bloggers and infopreneurs to see if it makes sense to pool resources. We all have strengths and weaknesses and it can really help to team up with someone else who actually enjoys the things that we don’t like to do. There is so much to learn associated with blogging, that no one is an expert in everything. Don’t re-invent the wheel if you can partner with someone who has already figured out where the pitfalls are and is ready to collaborate with you on your ideas.

If you are a big-picture and highly creative person but you hate working with details or finances, look around you to see who you can team up with that can take on those tasks. You don’t have to work with each other forever (we’ve seen some pretty major partnerships crumbling lately) but if it helps you get your business to the next level, why wouldn’t you reach out to partner with someone? All is takes it one communication to the right person. Sure, you may get some No’s at first, but you may partner with someone who complements your strengths and weaknesses. Check out the usual forums for joint ventures and people who want to collaborate. They are already primed to work with others and are just waiting for you to reach out to them.

You never know where the next big, million dollar idea may come from.

2. Just Say No

When I’m feeling really overwhelmed, I tend to shut down and just say No to anything else being added to my plate. I can only do so much. If you or someone else is constantly adding to your Todo list, you do have the right to say No. There is a tendency in the blogosphere to keep up with the next blogger, but you can decide not to do everything that the next blogger is doing.

If the next blogger is doing video, does that mean that you have to? No, you can choose not to add that to your blogging activities.

There’s an artificial sense of competition in blogging. Sure, we all want to make the six figure income and be experts in SEO, marketing, video, audio, writing, copywriting, creating info products, networking, and all the rest. But, it’s not going to happen. Accept the things that you can do and let the rest go. You only really have to create great content for your site in order to attract traffic and to build your list. Concentrate on your writing and your message.

You can Just Say No to all the other tangents that are making your feeling overwhelmed. It’s important to say No to time wasters, particularly. We each only have 24 hours in a day and we can’t do everything.

3. Use the 4D Solution

The 4D Solution refers to taking each task on your Todo list and deciding what to do with it.

Can you Do It? If you have a task that will take minutes of your time and you’ve been putting it off, why not just Do it and get it over with? There’s no use in staring at the same task day after day, particularly if it wouldn’t take a lot of your time and energy to do. What task have you been putting off that you can do in the next ten minutes? In the next 30 minutes? Do those items and then cross them off your Todo list so that you are feeling a sense of accomplishment and are feeling less overwhelmed. By tackling the easy to do items, you will be building momentum to take on the harder tasks.

What can you Do so that you are getting things done and are feeling less overwhelmed?

Can you Defer It? If you are feeling so overwhelmed by everything that you have to do, then really examine the necessity of everything that you are doing. I have “Create a Twitter background” on my Todo list for the last six months. It’s on my list, but it’s not urgent (for me, anyways) and I have other priorities, so I am deferring it until later. I know that  I should have a custom Twitter background, but I just don’t have time right now to figure out how to do it or what to say.

What can you Defer until later so that you can get a handle on what’s left on your plate?

Can you Dump It? Let’s face facts. There are a lot of tasks that will never get done. I’m not really interested in creating videos for my site, so I’m going to dump that task. It may be the latest and greatest way to attract traffic (or so I’m told) but I’m not interested in being in front of a camera and putting myself out there. I like to keep some of my privacy intact.

What can you Dump from your list that you know that you are never going to do? Just get dump it and the accompanying guilt so that you can concentrate on what’s really important.

Can you Delegate It? Go through your Todo list and see where you can delegate tasks to other people. Sure, things should get done, but that doesn’t mean that you have to do them. Can you outsource and pay someone else to do the tedious and repetitive items that are making you feel overwhelmed? Can you put a price on your time and energy? Delegation doesn’t have to cost money, though.  Maybe you can barter services with someone else (see #1 collaboration above).  If you’ve helped someone out in the past, then it might be time to call in those favours and ask for help when you are feeling really overwhelmed.

What can you Delegate to someone else?

4. Prioritize

All tasks are not created equal.

There are items that you do that are not of high priority, are not urgent, and do not have to be done by you. But, why do we do them? Because usually they are either something fun that we want to do, or they are easy (they don’t take much time or energy). Checking Twitter and Facebook are easy, fun tasks. Writing a quality 1000+ article is not easy (well, not for me anyways). But, which one of these tasks is going to benefit me in the long run? Knowing my priorities helps me focus on what’s important.

There is a correlation between prioritizing your tasks so that you are not feeling so overwhelmed and the other 3 ways that I described.

In order to figure out what task or project that you should collaborate or partner with someone, you first need to know your priorities. The same goes with using the 4D Solution technique of Doing, Deferring, Dumping or Delegating tasks. And, knowing your priorities is especially relevant to Just Saying No to those tasks or activities that are not of the highest priority to you.

We should be working on the higher priority tasks or activities, rather than the lower ones. Being clear on what those higher priority items (the 4-5 very highest priorities) is a key step in feeling less overwhelmed.

There definitely will be times when we are feeling overwhelmed by everything in our lives. That’s just a fact of the 21st century and our fast-paced lives. But, you can use the four ways described here to help you beat that feeling (at least for a while).

Karen writes at A Meaningful Existence, a blog devoted to helping others put meaning into their existence through practical personal development strategies. You can subscribe to her RSS Feed and also find her on Twitter at @kruby.

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