If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to do, chances are you could benefit from these ways to get unstuck. Overwhelm is like quicksand and when it sets in, it can completely take you off of your game and make you uber productive on all the things that really do not matter one bit in your business. I call this busy work, it has nothing to do with building a business. You may wear the “I’m so busy” badge of honor on a regular basis and still feel like you’re never making any real progress
This is why:
1) You probably haven’t identified the one thing you need to do that will make everything else easier or unnecessary.
2) You probably haven’t taken the time to figure out what you need to stop doing and identify what is really essential.
3) You probably don’t have a super clear vision of where you want to go over the course of the next 3-5 years because you’re too busy struggling to manage what’s going on over the next 3 weeks.
4) You probably have fallen victim to not having a plan you can follow to get things done.
If this resonates with you, you’ve been in my shoes once or twice.
Feeling like you have so much to do and no bandwidth to do it can make you second guess everything and even minimize your confidence and belief in your ability to run your business. When your business experiences growth, it’s easy to fall victim to busy work and not tend to the business at its next growth level.
Over the last year, there have been four books I’ve read that have really helped me. I’d like to share what they are and what I took away from each of them:
The ONE Thing
This book will show you how critically important it is to focus on one major thing at a time. When you focus on strategy in your business, a good strategy is knowing what one thing will move the business forward in such a way that many of the other things you do no longer matter.
It’s not simple to identify your one thing. It takes time, focus, and thought.
Essentialism
Once you figure out what your one thing is, you next have to become fiercely protective of your time and decide what activities are essential to you. This means getting good at saying no to the things that do not align with what your priorities are.
And, you can’t say no if you don’t know what those priorities are, which is why knowing your one thing matters so much.
Entrepreneurs tend to treat everything like it is a priority. When you do that, nothing is a priority.
It’s critical that you isolate what is really essential for you to do. Click To Tweet
It’s also important to know what is really essential for your team to do to support you in your business.
Double Double
The most important part of this book is Chapter One. You can download a copy on the web for free and Cameron Herald will walk you through how to create the most vivid vision for your life and business you’ve ever had.
The premise of this book is how to double your business in three years. The magic is the visualization chapter because all of your priorities and activities need to hinge on that. If you don’t know what it is, you’ll struggle with identifying your one thing and activities that are essential to your success.
The 12 Week Year
Once you have identified your one thing, know what is essential and have a compelling vision for your life and business, it’s time to do the work. In Profit Pods, we are using the concepts in The 12 Week Year to get more done in a quarter than most people get done in a year.
This book debunks annualized planning as being old school and inefficient at getting things done. When you plan in 12-week chunks, with a singular focus, and you map out each essential task, you can meet and exceed your goals.
I created a simple and easy-to-use template to help you implement the lessons that The 12 Week Year teaches. If you’d like to have it, you can [sg_popup id=”1″ event=”click”]download it for free![/sg_popup]
If you set a goal for the year, most people procrastinate for the first 10 months of the year. When you have a WHOLE year, you have lots of time. The only thing lots of time does is fuel distraction and a lack of commitment.
In Profit Pods, we are hyper-focused on adopting this 12-week focus to get results.
Overwhelm happens when you try to do everything and be everything to everyone. When you focus, gain clarity, and take the time to plan what needs to happen, magic can transpire.
Think about it, what’s YOUR one thing you need to focus on? Let me know in the comments below!
