As a business owner, you can probably relate to feeling like the work neverrrr ends. Between client work and all of the things that you want to do for your own business, it’s like the to-do list is 1,000 pages long at any given time. 

And that’s not even taking into account your personal life. If you have kids, that to-do list gets even longer and on top of that you’re also trying to be the best spouse you can be. 

Oh and somewhere in between all of that, laundry needs to get done, the house needs to be cleaned, groceries need to be shopped for, and so on. 

(Spoiler: the house is never clean even if I spend the entire day cleaning said house.)

So how the heck does one run a business (or two!), maintain any form of a personal life, and NOT burn the heck out all the time?!

From personal experience, it takes a lot of intentionality to make sure you aren’t overdoing it at any given time. And I’ll be honest – as a passionate business owner that loves what you do, it can be really hard to slow down or say no.

But I’ve learned the hard way that if you DON’T say no sometimes and if you don’t slow down… well, eventually you’ll end up resenting the very thing you created that you once loved so much. 

And that’s the last thing you want. So in this blog post, I’m sharing a few strategies that I personally implement into my life and business in order to ditch the overwhelm and actually move the needle. 

You’ll also find a few tangible tips that you can implement as soon as today along with a mindset shift that’s equally important!

The Biggest Mindset Shift You Need To Make To Avoid Overwhelm and Make Progress

Most high achievers have one thing in common: we adopt an all or nothing mindset that can serve us really well at times… but can also be super detrimental at other times.

For me personally, one of the greatest mindset shifts I’ve made is recognizing that small progress is STILL progress and it’s better than no progress at all. 

It can be easy to believe that if you aren’t able to give something 100% or you aren’t able to finish a task or project in one sitting that it isn’t worth doing. But that couldn’t be further from the truth!

The important thing is that you are taking some sort of productive action each day, no matter how small it may seem or feel. Small progress compounds over time and adds up in a huge way. 

My Favorite Strategies For Overcoming Overwhelm In My Business

Once you’ve shifted your perspective to understand and fully believe that progress is progress, there are a few strategies you can implement to help you overcome overwhelm in your day-to-day life. 

Whether it’s in your personal life or for the business side of things, these strategies can help you start taking action and build momentum you need to keep moving forward.

1. Tiny Task Method ✅

My friend Sara at BTL Copy recently shared her “Tiny Tasks ‘Til Ten” method and I instantly stole this strategy for myself. 

The way Sara uses it is she will spend an hour of her morning (before 10am) checking off any tiny tasks that she has on her to-do list. 

This could be things like responding to an email or DM, throwing in a load of laundry, putting a letter in the mailbox, scheduling a newsletter, signing or sending a contract, paying an invoice, etc. 

Everyone’s tiny task list will look different, but the point is that these are items that really don’t take you more than 5-10 minutes to do. The idea here is that you begin your day by checking off a few things that are clogging up your mind in order to build momentum and motivation to jump into larger tasks. 

And let me just say… THIS WORKS! 

When I sit down at my desk each day, before jumping into my heavy work items, I implement the Tiny Task Method to get my day started and moving in the right direction.

It’s seriously a game changer. 

2. Listening to Focus Music 🎶

This might seem like the smallest and most basic strategy to move you out of overwhelm and into action, but my friend Natalie at Natty Writes shared these focus beats on her Instagram stories one day and I thought I’d give them a shot. 

When I say it feels like they transport you into a different universe, I’m not joking! These are my go-to focus tunes whenever I need to put my head down and get. ish. done.

Don’t knock it ‘til you try it!

3. Time Blocking and Time Tracking ⏰

While creating a to-do list can be helpful to keep you organized so that you know what needs to be done, I’ve learned that taking your to-do list a little further by time blocking is major key.

If you’re anything like me, sometimes it can be hard to know where to start when your long to-do list is staring you down and it’s tempting to task switch which can end up taking you MORE time in the long run and can lead to less progress as a whole. This is why scheduling specific blocks of time for each item on your list can be super helpful!

It might take you a few tries to figure out how long a task actually takes you in order to start time blocking correctly, but once you do, you’ll feel unstoppable. 

Oh and that’s where time tracking comes in handy – time tracking perfectly complements time blocking by giving you insights into how long your tasks actually take, helping you refine your schedule for future projects and ensuring you’re maximizing productivity without burnout. 

A super easy time tracking tool that I love is Toggl!

4. Break Large Tasks Into Smaller, Manageable Items 📝

Remember how I said that most overachievers adopt an all or nothing mindset that can get us into trouble if we aren’t careful? 

Well one way to combat that is to intentionally break your larger tasks into smaller, manageable items that are REALISTIC for one sitting.

For example, if you’re a copywriter and you need to write a website for a client, the odds of you finishing that website from start to finish in one sitting are pretty slim. So instead of putting “write website” on your to-do list and feeling defeated when you don’t finish the entire thing, break it into smaller pieces, like “write home page” or “write about page.”

This will help you feel like you’re making real progress on the task as a whole instead of feeling like you didn’t accomplish what you set out to do.

5. Focus on Needle Moving Activities and Ditch The Rest 🗑️

As a business owner, it’s really easy for EVERYTHING to feel important. But the reality is that there are truly only a handful of to-do’s that actually need your attention. The rest can either be delegated or even eliminated altogether. 

This is where using something like the Eisenhower Matrix can come in handy!

The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, is a time management tool that helps prioritize tasks by dividing them into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance.

Named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower who used this method for decision-making, it categorizes tasks as follows:

• Urgent and Important: These tasks need immediate attention and have significant consequences. They should be done as soon as possible.
• Not Urgent but Important: These tasks are crucial for long-term success but don’t require immediate action. They should be scheduled for later.
• Urgent but Not Important: These tasks are time-sensitive but don’t significantly impact long-term goals. They can often be delegated to others.
• Not Urgent and Not Important: These tasks are distractions and typically add little value. They should be minimized or eliminated.

By categorizing tasks this way, you can focus on what truly matters and avoid getting bogged down by less important tasks.

Overall, being a business owner CAN be overwhelming amidst everything else you have going on in your life, but I’m a firm believer that you can avoid burnout when you adopt a few strategies that help you manage the overwhelm effectively. 

Your business shouldn’t always be the thing stressing you out – even though entrepreneurship is often portrayed as something that’s hard and exhausting, it can also be the thing that energizes and excites you daily. 

Sure, there will always be parts of it that’s challenging, but in the grand scheme of things, it can be wonderful and implementing one or all of these strategies is a pretty good starting point if you’re on the brink of burn out in your business!

Trust me – you don’t want to stay there. So go ahead and choose a strategy above to start implementing to pull yourself out. It’s so worth it!

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If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hey I’m Amber – not a regular lawyer, but a cool lawyer that helps online business owners sell without getting sued. 

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