time management

How to Fight Overwhelm in 5 Simple Steps

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Here’s what happens…

You have some grand plan to accomplish a ton of work today, or this week, or even this month.

All you have to do is “start”, and follow the directions that may have been given to you in order to accomplish these tasks.

Easy, right?

Well.. for some, yes.

For others, impossible.

Because once you start, there are a thousand distractions, you feel the pull from every direction, and after a while it seems like you’ve ventured down a completely different path than you originally planned.

Why?

Overwhelm.

Too much information, otherwise known as “information overload”.

We’ve all experienced it at one time or another.

So how do we get around this?

How do we get through it?

How do we make it go away?

Here are 5 helpful steps to get you over this time-management hurdle..

  • 1. Get it out of your head and down on paper (or onto your screen).

Grab a pen, or use an online task manager, and just start writing notes on what you have to do. No particular order, just get it out of your head and you won’t have to worry about it taking up space in your brain anymore.

  • 2. Prioritize and group your tasks

Look at your tasks, decide what’s important and what you “want” to do first. Prioritize based on what you LIKE doing and what you’d most enjoy getting off your plate.

  • 3. Take action and do the easy stuff first.

Dig in. Since you prioritized your tasks based on what you WANT to do first, those should be the easiest to get done. It’s much easier finishing tasks you enjoy doing as opposed to the tougher ones (even if they’re more important). As long as you’re taking action you’re on the right track.

  • 4. Stay focused (on the current task) until complete

Do it, complete it. Don’t do half of one task while doing half of another task, otherwise you’d end up back in the world of overwhelm. Don’t do another task until you’ve completed (and checked off) the previous task.

  • 5. Celebrate.

Check that sh*t off your list. Give yourself a pat on the back. Being able to check your tasks off a list is the reason task lists exist. Every completed task deserves a small reward. Celebrate the fact that you’re moving forward, and that you know how to KEEP moving forward.

Repeat the above steps until your tasks have been checked off your list.

Easy, right? Kind of. You just have to do it – and keep doing it.

The tool I use on a daily basis to keep all my task management on task, is called the TomorrowList, and it’s part of GlobalNPN‘s suite of marketing tools.

I use it because it’s a simple, non-complicated, task manager that is super quick to set up, create tasks, make notes, and get stuff done.. which is what we want, right?

tomorrowlistscreen

You can get access to this tool from your GlobalNPN backoffice.

Let me know if this article helped you out by clicking “LIKE” and leaving me a comment below..

Thanks!
– Geoff Stephen

Blogging in the Morning – Managing your Time

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Hi everyone,

Time Management.

I have often been asked, “What’s the #1 piece of advice you can offer with regards to maximizing the time you have available during the day?”

We all struggle with how to get the most out of our time, especially when many of us are doing this part time. This is something that I’ve struggled with myself on and off over the years in doing business online.

When running a business, you have tasks that you need to accomplish, some are boring, mundane tasks that we might not LIKE to do, but we have to do them nonetheless. We also have tasks that we do that are specifically geared towards generating new business and new income.

Now.. the typical way to think is that we want to get the “boring” stuff out of the way so we can concentrate on the stuff that makes us money.

That used to be the way I thought about it but it turns out I had everything backwards.

Our first instinct when we start our day is to open our email, deal with that. Then open our Skype, deal with those messages. Then deal with any issues that your team is dealing with. Check voicemail and see if there are reports of any more issues that we need to deal with…

By that time, we’re exhausted and are all set to have lunch.

Then, we get back to work after lunch and try and do something that’s actually productive for our business. Unfortunately our brain is telling us that we’ve had enough, and trying to come up with new ideas just isn’t happening for you.

That’s exaclty what was happening to me. After dealing with the boring stuff, I had a hard time doing anything that required being creative. Blogging, programming, design work, ad copy, articles, video ideas… I was having to FORCE myself to be creative, which, as we know, is not the best way to jumpstart our creativity. It’s incredibly frustrating.

So I switched things up, and here’s what I do now..

My first tasks when I start my day are things that are focused on creating income and building my business. Simple as that. The morning is when my brain is ‘fresh’ (after my coffee of course), and that’s when the new ideas flow much more easily. That’s when all the ‘good stuff’ happens.

Then I leave my boring stuff until towards the end of my day. It doesn’t take creativity to do the mundane tasks that come with running a business, you just have to do them, very little ‘brains’ involved. Save those for later.

So, in closing..

My #1 tip for time management?

Do the things that make you money FIRST. Save the rest for later.

.. and my #1 tip for organizing your daily tasks?

Use your GlobalNPN TomorrowList in your backoffice. It keeps me totally on task and up to date. Use it. It’s in your NPN backoffice and you can also access it on your smartphone.

That’s it for now.

Have a great day.

– Geoff Stephen.