Dealing with overwhelm

If ever the rulebook of life was thrown out of the window (then set on fire) it has been 2020. It’s been a funny old year of ups and downs, sometimes I think it’s worth just acknowledging that it’s been pretty hard at times but we’re still here standing and doing our best with this thing called life.

I haven’t sent a newsletter for the past couple of weeks, and that wasn’t a purposeful choice, I’ve just had a lot on recently and I didn’t leave myself enough time to write in terms of my list of business priorities.

Which goes something like this:

  1. Urgent client work
  2. Regular client work
  3. New enquiries
  4. Coaching / learning
  5. Admin
  6. LinkedIn posts / Strategic Sundays email
  7. My own SEO
  8. A bunch of other stuff I’ve never managed to get to

So basically I haven’t managed to get much past #5 recently, which has been great in many ways and I’m extremely grateful that my business is doing well and I am working with some dream clients.

But I’m not going to lie, I have also felt very overwhelmed at times too. I’ve been working extremely hard to get my business to the stage it’s at today, in fact, I realised the other day that I haven’t had a break since the first week in January!

My partner and I have a tradition that we go away around for our birthdays each year in May, but that had to get scrapped due to obvious reasons. It just hasn’t happened at any other time, it certainly hasn’t been the easiest year to plan things.

Also, I don’t know about you but it just seems really difficult to take time away from my own business. I have probably worked too much in all honesty, but I am doing something that I love and feeds my family so I’m good with it.

Overwhelm is something I’ve spoken with my mentor about at great length, and here are some things I’ve found helpful which may help you too:

  1. Keep it simple – don’t overcomplicate things when they don’t need to be so.
  2. Get back to (health) basics – do the things that you know work for you and help you. For me, part of this is my weekly run and daily grounding routine.
  3. Reward your success – I recently booked in a massage (for tomorrow), this has many health benefits and I should have done it a long time ago.
  4. Take some personal time – I really struggle with this, between family, business and personal projects for the betterment of humankind… I often put myself last.

What I probably need more than anything is just having a whole week off from work, emails, news media and social media. Turn my phone off and spend some time with the family away from everything. I shall be booking this in soon.

How do you deal with overwhelm?

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An SEO Consultant based in Mansfield Woodhouse, United Kingdom. I'm obsessed with SEO at the moment, but I also love talking about and interpreting marketing in general, productivity and entrepreneurship.

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