As a solopreneur content creator, I’m painfully aware of the overwhelm that one can feel when he or she is having to wear all the many hats required to manage the daily functions of an undertaking of substantial proportions . . . a major project . . . a business even.
As a matter of fact, I wrote a blog post (dated August 21, 2019), entitled Top 5 Tips to Help Content Creators Manage an Overwhelming Workload. To recap, check out the productivity tips I suggested for managing the overwhelm:
Number One: Prioritize the priorities. List out your work-related priorities (tasks) by level of importance (with the most important at the top) or by deadline due date (most recent date due at the top).
Number Two: Schedule your tasks for completion. Take those priorities, or tasks, and place them on a calendar, identifying days of the week and times of the day in which the tasks should be completed.
Number Three: Get rid of distractions, which is anything that prevents you from doing your to-dos or causes a disruption in your work flow. Distractions can come in the form of things such as:
- a cell phone and other technological devices
- social media (everything besides YouTube)
- YouTube
- any activity that puts a crimp in your work flow
- any activity that keeps you from starting your to-do list
Number Four: Delegate work-related items to others. Put tasks on a plate for another person to eat, so you can clear off a little space on your plate and avoid getting “stuffed”.
Number Five: Remember to reward yourself for a job well done. Incentivize yourself for completing tasks.
And today, I want to take the opportunity to add some new tips to this list by declaring tip Number Six to be “Focus on those tasks that provide value to others“, and tip Number Seven to be “Focus on those tasks that will propel you forward toward your goal achievement destination.”
The stakes are high for a solopreneur. In this role, you essentially have the weight of how well your new venture does or doesn’t do on your weary shoulders. Feeling the pressure, yet? And quite frankly, there’s no shortage of tasks you can busy yourself with as a solopreneur. But, the focus should never be on the quantity of tasks to get done in a time period. The focus should be on making sure that the tasks you take on are meaningful to the overall outcome you’re seeking.
Here’s a simple way to look at the overwhelm. Please know that you don’t have to do all the things and be all things to all people in order to accomplish your goals and provide value to others in what you do as a content creator. And personally, I’ve already made some strides to “get rid of the clutter” in the things that I do at Degrees of Maternity by
- working with my strengths and focusing attention on the things I’m good at, the things I know, and the things I’m passionate about.
- working efficiently to manage those aspects of business that are “have-to” priorities, whether I enjoy doing them or not. (Inevitably, there will always be those tasks that are less desirable to do (than others) but are oh-so-vital to the success of a business and can’t be overlooked. NOTE: It might help you to get through the process of tackling the “undesirables” by considering them to be tasks that provide a means to a desired end.)
Tip of the Week: Focus on those tasks that will get you closer to your goal achievement destination. And once you complete all of those priority tasks that will result in GETTING THINGS DONE, then you can draw your attention to other items that are presented further down on your list of to-dos.
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