How Do You Deal with Overwhelm?

“Overwhelm” is a constant theme in our coaching conversations lately. Business professionals have this sense of more effort and fewer positive results. There’s more to do than there is of me to do it.

How do you deal with overwhelm?

Here are 3 things you can do starting right now to move your business forward while overwhelmed:

Focus
Your attention is a valuable, non-renewable resource. This most precious asset is best invested according to your priorities. Set your priorities based on:

Time: Once your time is spent, it’s gone. You have only now. Focus on deadlines and timelines, markers and metrics for guiding your attention flow.

Core Values: Your focus is allocated according to certain character qualities you choose, like integrity, honesty, and exceptional customer relationships. You best select your core values away from the heat of an overwhelming moment to insure consistent action during overwhelm. Discerning time scheduled daily guarantees you do what you choose in the best possible manner.

Unique Contribution: The mission critical is determining your unique contribution to achieving the business dream within you. Perhaps you can do anything, but not everything all at once. Focus on your chief tasks that contribute your piece to the emerging puzzle of success at work.

Finish
Distractions are unavoidable. A client walks in. Something breaks. A system fails. It happens, right?

Yet some distractions are manageable such as voice mail, email, and social media.

You are successful in conquering overwhelm when you sort through such interruptions and focus to finish. Multi-tasking is a myth. Better results emerge—more profit, more productivity, more personal satisfaction—as you focus to finish.

Certain tasks are on-going, e.g., sales calls. Yet if you have unfinished stuff lying around your to-do list consistently, focus to finish is begging for your attention.

Get started by finding one to-do item that can be quickly finished at the end of your day. Check it off your list, enjoy the satisfaction of accomplishment, and that same sense welcomes you the next morning.

Follow Through with Feedback
When I pitched high school baseball, my coach taught me the importance of follow through. To throw a fast ball, I continued through the pitch and touched my shoe laces. To throw a curve ball, I followed through as if pulling down a window shade to my knee. The ball magically struck the zone where I visualized it when I followed through.

The same is true when you focus to finish and then follow through with feedback. Evaluate your results by asking for feedback from your clients and teammates. Focus on the positive strengths and replicate them in your system. Find a better way to achieve your business dreams instead of the weaknesses.

When overwhelm next assaults you, focus to finish and follow through with feedback and you’ll Work Positive in this negative world.