Are You Feeling Overwhelmed with Details?

Do you sometimes feel like you are drowning in details? You try to keep your head above water, have one eye on the big picture, watch out for what may be coming up ahead, and yet every day at the office you are deluged by all the many tasks, requests, contacts, deadlines, commitments, and problems you have to deal with that day. If that sounds familiar, it’s time to take a step back and rethink how you are managing your business. The flood of details is never going to stop. You need to get control of it before you burnout or worse.

In my experience, the following are some common ways designers, especially solopreneurs, find themselves overwhelmed with details:

• Taking on too much. When business is good, it’s tempting to say “yes” to whatever offers come your way, whether new projects, consultations, showhouses, product lines, promotional opportunities, or what have you. Stick to your goals and priorities and don’t give in. Each of us, no matter how talented or hardworking, has a limited capacity. Know your limits, abide by them, and focus on what matters most.
• Making everything is a priority. Priority means most important, which implies that some things are less important. When everything becomes a priority, nothing is. I recommend setting your true priorities monthly, weekly and daily. At the beginning of the month, identify what are the most important two or three things you need to achieve that month to grow your business and hit your revenue targets. Then, at the beginning of each week, identify what must get done that week in order to set up what has to get done the following week. Finally, at the end of each day, identify what are the most important things you need to accomplish the next day to keep you on track to meet your weekly and monthly priorities. Set up a filing system or systems (paper and digital) to organize lesser priority commitments and then create reminders to alert you to when those deadlines are approaching. Then forget about them until you need to deal with them later.
• Not delegating. As a small business owner myself, I understand the desire to be in control of every aspect of your business at all times, as well as the belief that no one can do it as well as you can. I have learned the hard way, however, that no one can do it all (unless you have nothing to do), and that other people have talents I don’t have who can do some things better and faster. Some of the most productive and successful people are those who learned long ago the value of delegating, so that they can focus their energies on what they do best. Decide how you best contribute to your business and then delegate the rest.
• Not having someone to delegate to. You won’t delegate as you should if you don’t take time to find trusted individuals you can delegate to. These may be outsourced personnel or services, consultants or specialists, full- or part-time staff, interns, or partners or collaborators. Don’t wait until you’re desperate for help. Talk to colleagues, friends or business associates to get recommendations or referrals, interview some candidates, and give them less important tasks at first to complete until you feel confident about their abilities and about your working relationship.
• Not establishing work rules and boundaries. Running a successful business, like any kind of meaningful activity, requires discipline. Develop good work habits that will make your work more manageable and less stressful, like only reading and responding to emails and texts at certain times of the day, accomplishing your daily priorities first before tackling other tasks, saying “no” to non-priority requests, scheduling time for working on your business as well as in your business, and scheduling time for concentrated, heads-down work, free of other distractions or interruptions.

Finally, don’t neglect your health and well being. Schedule times during the day and week for breaks, recreation or exercise, meals, time with family and friends, etc. Sometimes just stepping away from everything for a brief period helps to abate the feeling of being overwhelmed, allowing you to return to your work refreshed and with a more productive perspective.