Combatting Overwhelm as a Business Owner

It’s a biological fact that when our brains are trying to process too many bits of information at one time it responds by shutting down our creative and innovative abilities. If the overwhelm persists it may even shut down our cognitive abilities. We all experience this in various degrees all the time.

I don’t think that I’ve ever worked with a Business owner who hasn’t had the challenge of time. Take Yvonne, the owner of Econo Cartridge & Stationery, 2 branches in Empangeni and a shareholder in Richards Bay. Three branches, a mother’s usual concerns about her children, a business hard hit by the financial pressures of the Covid pandemic, a branch trashed during the riots and a team all looking to her, not to mention the business requirements of managing stock, cash flow and the customer experience.

Over the years she had allocated time slots to work “on” her business numerous times, some days went well others not so well. She would stick to it, things would go smoothly so she wouldn’t pay it as much attention, responding rather to the things that weren’t going well. The overwhelm would set in … enjoyment levels would plummet along with her effectiveness as a business owner.

I always tell my clients a default diary is like riding a bucking bronco, its going to chuck you off and you’re going to have to get back on, until you tame the beast. For those of you wondering what a default diary is, it’s a blocked allocation of your time in your diary, to do work that supports your plan to build a profitable business that is efficient and not dependent on you as the Business Owner. Now whilst that seems straight forward the problem is that the work you must do in this time slot is important but seldom if ever urgent. As we have become hard wired to prioritise the urgent ….. it’s an easy toss and off you go!!!  Another week of being the super worker and no progress on building your business.