As creative founders, from time-to-time we find ourselves dealing with overwhelm and stressful situations. Let’s face it, running a small business is no plain sailing. While economic uncertainty is up in the air, there is a pressure on us to deliver the sales targets we need to carry us over into the next months ahead. If you’re a creative mind, you may not cope with pressure, stress and overwhelm very well. You find relief in your own world, your safe place where you don’t have to think about anything else than just creating or designing.
There is a lot of advice on dealing with stress and pressures, and of course, your coping mechanism is very individual. Over the years I tried many things; trying to keep calm and practising mindfulness. When it comes to task overwhelm what really helped me most is taking control of my time.
Time management is an important skill for life as well as your business. We, creative founders, are multitakers and sometimes we forget that we just can’t do it all. Recently, I came across the concept of “monotasking”. Have you heard of it? Monotasking is the practice of focusing on one specific task at a time to maximise productivity while minimising interruptions.
5 tips for dealing with overwhelm in day-to-day:
1. Close your email inbox completely. Emails can wait.
2. Put the iphone out of sight / the office. The biggest distraction of modern time.
3. Take a regular break. That’s why modern tech companies encourage employees to have a rest after a sprint.
4. Allocate work to others while focusing on things you are good at.
This was a gamechanger for me. Recognise where you spend most of your time and where you can make most difference. As David Allen said, “You can do anything but not everything.” His book “Getting things done” will help you tremendously with this.
5. Go for a walk or change the scenery.
Always calms me down and sparks ideas. As David Hieatt said, “Sometimes the best way to have ideas is to be thinking of something else.” It works for me. I highly recommend his book DO/PURPOSE available on Amazon.
Pressures, stresses and problems can be manageable if we recognise them and ask for help. Some things we can control better than others but they are always solvable. Personally, once I start to see the end of the tunnel, I seem to relax, and dealing with overwhelm becomes more manageable.
Life is too short for worries about small things. Let’s see the bigger picture. Let’s build our resilience while overcoming pressures and keep moving forward.
Written by Karolina Barnes, STUDIO/ESTILA
If you enjoyed this article, why not subscribe to our bi-weekly “Creative Advice” round-ups? That way you never miss out on a good idea, case study or tip that you can get inspired by and use in your own business.
Transparency Disclosure: This post may contain an affiliate link and we may receive small commission if you decide to make a purchase of this book. We only recommend books our team believes are of highest quality, relevancy to your creative business and value to your brand.
