Being a blogger and even making your living from blogging is amazing. However, it does come with it’s own set of problems; long hours, lots of stress, and to-do lists that are often off the scale. Add in your family, pets, friends and the demands of daily life and it can be very easy to become overwhelmed.
As bloggers, we tend to do everything ourselves on our blogs and so we can be trying to focus on design, promotion, fixing issues, finances and everything else. Where do you start? As we work for ourselves, we impose our own schedule and priorities and this is where the overwhelm can start to creep in. We can, if we are not careful, become almost paralysed into inaction because we are analysing every aspect of what we should do, and consequently end up doing very little as a result.
I’m not immune to this and although I blog frequently about productivity and even offer a 5 day productivity challenge (you can sign up for free!), I still fall foul to overwhelm. There’s always so much to do, so much to learn, so many possibilities.
Today, I’m going to share how I move forward when overwhelm threatens to leave me hiding under the duvet!
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Evaluate
Do a time and motion study on how you spend your blogging time. How much time do you actually spent tab clicking, or scrolling through Facebook? Write it all down, then you can see where you are wasting your time and start to eliminate these time sucks from your day.
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Prioritise
It might sound too simplistic, but first things first. Evaluate what you have to get done each day. Top of my list is content I have been paid to produce, then things I have agreed to do for others, then my own content, then the ‘other’ stuff.
The paid for content is non-negotiable, as you have committed to producing that. Add in at the top of your list anything else that is non-negotiable. These non negotiables aren’t just things with a financial reward, but they are things that add value to your life in some way.
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When you agree to do a project jump in with both feet
If we are feeling overwhelmed we often feel a little unsettled. This means when we agree to do something, we can still be thinking about the other possibilities, whether this is right, what else we have to do and so on. So reduce the possibility of conflicting demands, if you are working then work if possible in another room. If you are playing with your kids, then do that and put your phone somewhere you won’t be tempted to pick it up. Invest in each thing you do, even if it’s just for a short time. This will also reduce the guilt we often feel, when we are trying to juggle all of our priorities.
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Say no more often
I have written before about how saying no can be good for your blog and business. I totally believe that not only is it empowering to say no to things which don’t fit well with your blog, aren’t well paid enough or that simply don’t light your fire; it can actually make PRs see you in a different light to those people blogging just for what they can get out of it.
When you are deciding which opportunities to accept, don’t accept them all. Think about which align with your goals and which you will enjoy taking part in.
Remember saying yes to things, means you are going to be taking time away from things you want to do, being with your kids, ‘you time’, time with family, whatever it is make sure it is worth it.
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Fight back against your overwhelm
When overwhelm strikes fight back. Find your way of working it out, whether it’s brain dumping all of the things whizzing round your head and then making lists; whatever works for you. Use the fight or flight response to your benefit and fight!
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Use timers
Give the tasks you are working on 100% focus and use timers if they help create a sense of motivation and urgency for you.
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Simplify
Sometimes if our overwhelm reoccurs, then we may need to revisit what we are committing our time/resources to and assess whether that’s still beneficial to us at the current time. Do you need to take part in hundreds of linkys, do you need to be as active in Facebook groups? Assess where you spend time, what’s overwhelming you, see if you still benefit from those actions and if not simplify these things.
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Is a specific thing overwhelming you?
Seth Godin was interviewed by Tim Ferriss about entrepreneurial block. Seth says, “You get blocked, not because you’re not passionate about what you’re doing but because you are afraid.” Seth recommends to conquer this you need to do three things: 1) Be clear of what you are afraid of, 2) Know why you are afraid, 3) Commit to dancing with the fear because it will never go away.
So if you are overwhelmed by video, but you know doing video would be really good for your blog/business and would help you reach your audience more effectively. Then Seth would advise you to delve into what scares and makes you feel overwhelmed about video and then do it! Just do it again and again, until eventually the overwhelm disappears.
There are no quick fixes to sailing through life without a twinge of overwhelm. It takes effort and a regular reassessment of your goals and priorities. It’s worth it though, to conquer overwhelm and make sure you’re achieving everything you want to.
Do you have any ways to tackle overwhelm? I would love for you to share them below.