In an ideal world, small business owners would have eight octopus arms to manage all the disparate tasks you need to handle at once. In this far-from-ideal world, you might often feel like you’ve actually got those eight arms moving in a tangle around you. If so, it’s understandable if it takes its toll on your mind.
Stress damages your brain on a neuronal level. The damage it does actually makes it harder for you to cope with stress and anxiety. So you get more stressed and anxious. You can probably see where this is going — and it’s no wonder so many entrepreneurs end up burning out or checking in to the clinic. Being overwhelmed at work is not good for you, and it’s certainly not good for your business.
What’s more, if you feel overwhelmed then your employees and contractors are probably feeling something similar, too. As a leader, it is important to harness your workflow.
Before you can fix the workflow itself, you need to get your energy back under control. If you’re feeling the burn right now, there are several fixes you can try to reset your system and get through the rest of the day in relative calm. After that you can look at longer-term ways to manage your feelings and your workload.
One way to ping yourself out of the fug is to complete a short mindfulness exercise. Professor Darren Good of Pepperdine University found that ‘thought control’ exercises like these can help you focus and push your anxious thoughts to the side.
An example of such an exercise is the 5-4-3-2-1 Method. Looking around you, name to yourself five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste. “Bringing our attention to our senses grounds us in the present and counting the items interrupts the spinning of our thoughts,” according to clinical psychologist Ellen Hendriksen.
Having hushed your mind a little, it can also help to hush some of the other demanding voices in your workspace. Switch off all non-essential digital notifications for a fixed period of time to keep yourself focused and diminish the sense of multiple pulls on your time. Doing this once, right now, can help you to get back on track. But also consider making notification-free periods like this a regular affair, two-three times a day, for an increased sense of calm while working.
Another great mind re-boot? You’re not going to like this one: exercise! A study at the University of Georgia found that “[s]ix weeks of low and moderate exercise training performed by sedentary adults without a well-defined medical condition or an unexplained fatigue syndrome but reporting persistent feelings of fatigue resulted in similarly beneficial effects on feelings of energy.”
It doesn’t mean you need to run a half-marathon on your coffee break. Gentle stretches or a short, brisk walk that doesn’t you out should do the trick. “The effects for symptoms of fatigue were moderated by exercise intensity,” continues the report, “and the more favorable outcome was realized with low-intensity exercise.”
And never forget, when things really get onto you, real strength is the ability to ask for help. Nearly half of full-time workers feel burned-out from time to time; as a small business owner, you probably feel much worse than them! If you have colleagues, delegate or collaborate. If not, think about getting a contractor in to take care of a task that doesn’t really need your personal hand — anything from cleaning to accounting. And speak to your doctor if you really feel you can’t cope with the stress.
As the owner of your own business, you may have found out the hard way that short-term fixes only have so much value. Once the short-term fix buys you a bit of breathing space, it is important to use that space to strategize for the longer-term. You might need to make some big changes, but it’ll be worth it. Most of the big changes you can make to reduce your feeling of being overwhelmed are actually quite pleasant by definition.
For instance, you may think you need to work 14-hour days to keep your business buoyant. But you are likely to be just as productive if you keep your hours manageable, and devote some free time to an ongoing hobby that is both physical and enjoyable. Take up swimming or a martial art, or join a hiking group, and you’ll find yourself more energized and inspired at work — even if you spend less time there. It is worth it for your quality of life, and it should deliver better work results, too.
There are plenty of such tweaks you can make to change the way you work. For more science-backed ideas on the short- and long-term fixes you can apply to your work philosophy, check out this new visual guide to being less overwhelmed at work. Your employees will thank you for it — even if you are your own only employee!
