Unfortunately small business coaches and mentors such as me often only get called in to assist a business when times are tough and the business is trying to recover or even save itself.  It was thinking about the owners and managers I have known in that situation that lead to the last blog "Is your business overwhelming you?"

At such time people usually feel overwhelmed by the flood of demands on them, on their time and the need to make decisions.  And the more they are overwhelmed, the more their decision making deteriorates, leading to even more pressure and stress.

The blog looked at five underlying causes.

I suggested there was also good news, that there are solutions, and promised some practical remedies.  

So let's look at some of these remedies.

The Power of "No" - one source of overwhelm and stress suggested in that blog was just not saying NO to the endless demands on you.  Learning to say No is a powerful tool in improving businesses.  But it doesn't just apply to saying No to requests from others, sometimes you need to say "No" to yourself!  

Take short breaks - Face it, when you are working intensively, whether it is dealing with others, in meetings, writing something or making those important decisions you are processing a lot of information.  But your brain needs time to absorb that information. It just needs a short break.  

If it doesn't get that break, it gets stressed.  So reward yourself and give the mind the opportunity to meander.  When you finish a task at which you have been labouring, take a short break.  Get up and walk around.  Do something else.  It need be no more than 5 or 10 minutes.  Take your mind off the immediate task at hand and just let your mind wander.  You will be good to go for another round of productivity after your brain recovers.  This is not an excuse for procrastination, but a refresher.

Create momentum by breaking a big task into a series of small tasks - I'm sure you know the feeling.  Sometimes a big task confronts you like a mountain.  It's easy to feel overwhelmed as you don't know from where to start.  By breaking that mountainous task into a series of smaller tasks, and tackling the small tasks first you build confidence and create the momentum to take on the more difficult tasks.  And once you have momentum you keep moving forward.

Take one step at a time - Part of the overwhelm problem is trying to do too many things at once.  Remember that you can only do one thing at a time.  Focus on just one thing, do it, and you'll be prompted to finish another.   One step at a time.

The importance of clarity - your mind becomes clouded by the task at hand when you feel overwhelmed.  Often the problem comes down to a lack of clarity about that is important, and what is just a squeaky wheel.  The feelings of overwhelm and stress causes people to lose sight of what they're trying to achieve and what they need to do to achieve it.  And in the end, they never get what they want.

You have all those decisions to be made, jobs to be done, which should be tackled first?  So you need to step back and decide what is important.
Here are two useful tools to determine those priorities:

• Use an "Urgency - Impact" matrix. Sketch a matrix on a piece of paper, labelling one axis URGENT and the other IMPACT. Scale each axis from LOW to HIGH. Then work through all those decisions and tasks and place them in the matrix. Don't agonise on where to place each one. Your first impulse is probably right. Obviously you are looking for those that are "High-High" to concentrate on. Get rid of or delegate the "Low-Low".

• 5 Whys - Another useful technique to determine what is important is to start asking the question of 'why' you should be doing a particular task next. Then ask 'why' of the answer you get, followed by 'why' again and so on. Asking 'why' five times will give you a clear understanding of the importance of a particular job or task and its priority in your decision making.

Now you can focus on doing things that are important to you, instead of lots of unimportant tasks that overwhelm you.

Offer

One of the problems in being overwhelmed and stressed in your business is that you are sure to be earning less than optimal profits.  Yet it is likely that there are hidden profits in your business.  

I've been pulling together everything I've learnt in the last 20 plus years of working with small businesses to help them transform their businesses, their profitability and thus their lifestyles.

It is in a f*ree special report "How to uncover the profits hidden in your business".   I give two case studies where clients have uncovered hidden profits in their businesses, profits which were leaking away instead of flowing into their bank accounts.

And I look at some of the tools and techniques Iused to uncover the profits and plug the leaks and suggest more than 27 areas you should work on to transform your business.

You can access the special report here.  Trial it NOW!

© Copyright 2011 Adam Gordon, Profits Leak Detective
8th December. 2011

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