Overcoming Overwhelm – 5 tips for a better business life.

Working with Ask Zoe brings you more clarity, more direction, and more time. We help you manage and grow your business without becoming overwhelmed by the process. But how can you recognize that you are becoming overwhelmed, and what can you do to help yourself?

Understanding why you are getting overwhelmed is the first key step. If you are the only person in your business, or at the head of a small team then the temptation is to try and do everything yourself. For example, does this sound like you?

Trying to stay on top of every aspect of the business.

Squeeze too many meetings into your calendar.

Do you end up with not enough time to complete the tasks you have set yourself?

If so, then this short article can help you. The first tip is:

Remember that you are in control – All of these problems reflect a choice. You control your calendar. You control your inbox and your phone. You are in control of your business, it does not control you.

In our last blog/article, we talked about SMART objectives. They are a general guide to managing your time more effectively, but you need to look deeper for long-term solutions to successfully build your business. So, our second tip is

Set objectives and priorities – These can be short-term to deal with your immediate need to manage the business, or longer-term to map out the direction that you want to take. Ask Zoe’s 1:1 consultancy can create a plan to move your business forward and would be a good way to help plan your objectives.

Tip 3: Be realistic about time – If you think a task will take 15 minutes, double it. If you have allowed 30 minutes for a meeting, make it 45. That way you will build in flexibility to your day. Most calendar apps have buffer time that you can build on either side of a meeting. It’s there for a reason, everything takes longer than we think.

Tip 4: Learn to say “No” – We want to please everyone so even considering saying no goes against every instinct we have. The time you will spend trying to fit in an extra task will inevitably mean that something else gets missed. People value honesty and if the truth is that you can’t meet their schedule, tell them and a compromise will usually be found.

Tip 5: You are not alone – Ask Zoe is built around my network of contacts. I’ve heard people say “Ask Zoe, if she can’t help, she’ll know who can” I named my business after it. Working in our Group Coaching Programme or joining business networking groups will start to build a support network that will reduce the stress simply by having owners of similar businesses around you.

The support that Ask Zoe gives is built around three words. Knowledge, objectives, and time. We have covered all these in our tips above. Knowledge is for the understanding of what you want to achieve in business. Objectives to help you achieve those goals and help you set priorities. We then help you manage your time so that you can develop and grow your business effectively without falling into overwhelm. Book a free 45-minute discovery call to see how and we can work together to give you the business you want and deserve.?