What to do when you get into overwhelm

A client writes, "I'm so busy, I can't get to my work. I have two freelancers working on projects. I spend most of my time writing proposals, meeting with new clients and prospects. Half my time is non-billable. What am I doing wrong? How do I make more of my time billable?

Our answer comes from Lee Silber (a.k.a. Creative Lee), author of 11 books, including Time Management for the Creative Person (and a few others in that series).

We can't have it all—at least not all at once. We must make choices about what to focus on now. It's at the core of our success—the choices we make about how we spend our time. To do this we have to separate good from great. (Of course it's "great" we want.) To do this I suggest using a little left-brain thinking in the planning process. (We can save our right brains for creating.)

When left-brainers feel overwhelmed they make lists. They also prioritize what's most important. We right-brain thinkers are good at spinning all our plates at once and only worrying about the one that looks like it's about to fall. So, let's try the left-brain approach and see how it works.

1. Make a list of everything you are spending time on. All your projects, proposals, personal stuff, and so on.
2. Next to each one rate it with dollar signs ($) 1-5. One means it has very little chance to produce revenue and five means it has a good chance.
3. Then rate each item on your list using a check mark on how urgent it is. One check means it's not urgent, five means you need it done.
4. Using a heart, rate each item based on how much you want to work on it 1-5. How excited are you by it?
5. Lastly, using plus signs, rank the item based on it's importance to your career, or any other criteria you feel is key.

Now you can see what is of the highest priority, and what to focus your time and talent on.

Try this and let us know what happens.

Comments

[MrPositioning.com (Stanley Bronstein)]

It is an unfortunate truth that when you are a small business person, you often must spend so much time developing your business that you find it difficult to spend time on actually doing your business.

That's the old debate between developmental hours versus billable hours.

Unfortunately, there is no really easy answer. In my many years of experience as an attorney and CPA, I've always advised clients that they need to come up with a way to work ON their business and spend less time working IN their business. Working ON your business (i.e. marketing will make it grow). Working IN your business will bring in money to pay the bills, but your business is less likely to grow.

My advice is be glad that you are spending time working on BUILDING the business. That is a smart thing to do. But, as the article suggests, it must be spent on smart things. You have to prioritize. Make sure your time is being spent wisely, but don't be upset just because a lot of it is being spent on developing your business.

The biggest help I've found in mastering my to-do list is proper prioritizing.

We MUST learn how to prevent the minor things in our lives from taking over the major things in our lives. In other words, that which is truly important should never be at the mercy of that which is truly not so important.

That's not an easy thing to do.

When I recently toured the country and interviewed over 80 successful people for my soon to be released third book, one common trait I found was that almost all of them were able to properly prioritize matters in there lives. Somewhere along the way, they had learned how to make sure the truly important things were not at the mercy of the unimportant things.

That's not an easy thing to do, but being aware of its necessity is the first step toward getting it done. Now that you're aware, get it done ...

Take care.

[Dani Nordin]

Ah, the problem we all wish we had, eh? What I find liberating about this type of situation is that it gives me a chance to really focus in on what I really want to be doing, and the proposals that won't lead to that are the first to go. Same thing with projects - I assess where I am on each project and work on knocking one that's close to completion out, then another, then another, etc.

I'm also a big fan of David Allen's "throw everything on individual pieces of paper and separate it into piles" system - although I use much smaller sheets of paper. I start with a particular project, then write down everything I can think of that still needs to be done on that project on individual pieces of paper (with realistic deadlines), and sort them into piles by project. Then, each task goes in my calendar, or gets done immediately. That way, the to-do list is clear and I don't have to think about it anymore. I even have a project called "Books to read" so I don't have to waste time figuring out which book I want to read next.

[MrPositioning.com (Stanley Bronstein)]

This reminds me of a quote I wrote about today.

During a very busy life I have often been asked, “How did you manage to do it all?” The answer is simple: Because I did everything promptly.

– Richard Tangye

Take care
Mr. Positioning
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney, CPA, Author & Professional Speaker