Wondering how to overcome overwhelm?
If you’re like me, these last few months have been nothing but coo-coo bananas!
You too?
Between rescheduled weddings, regularly scheduled weddings, even a SURPRISE wedding (!!!), keeping my business afloat and just managing life with two busy babies during a pandemic – I won’t lie, it’s been HARD.
There have been days (okay, weeks) that have felt like pure chaos, and I’ve had to learn to let go of some things (I’m looking at you, social media!) even if just for the time being.
So whether you’re knee deep in the weirdest fall wedding season to date like me, or finally coming out the other side and trying to catch up on #allthethings, here are 3 simple ways to overcome overwhelm in both life and business:
01. Overcome overwhelm with a brain dump
The first step to overcome overwhelm is to start by getting all your thoughts down on paper. If you’re Type A like me, I organize my brain dumps into lists with categories like weekly tasks, daily tasks, client projects, household chores, my kids’ needs, and misc. to-do’s. And then I organize my thoughts accordingly.
And for all my Type B people out there, don’t worry, your brain dump doesn’t have to look like mine. A messy list works just as well.
The key is to capture all of your to-do’s in whatever way works best for you!
02. Choose one thing to let go of
The second step to overcome overwhelm is to look over your brain dump list and pick just ONE thing you can eliminate or take off your plate during this busy season.
Is it scheduling social media? Writing blog posts? Updating your portfolios? Meal planning (we love Hello Fresh during busier weeks)? Saying no to more things? Committing to less?
Depending on your situation, this might include time-wasters, distractions, less-than-ideal processes, and anything that is not moving the needle forward or bringing you JOY!
For me, it was Instagram. I haven’t posted anything since July – and I’m not even mad about it.
It was consuming too much of my time and there were more important things to get done. Remember, your business will survive if you choose to press pause on something. I’ll be back to posting on Instagram one day, but for now it’ll have to wait!
Start with just ONE thing you can let go to the wayside…for now at least. Remember, you can always add it back later!
03. Prioritize the rest
Now that you’ve eliminated something from your plate, prioritize your to-do’s in order of relative importance.
Even if you have 50 items on your to-do list, prioritizing them will help you identify the 1st important one, the 2nd important one, the 3rd important one, and so on.
Developing your ability to prioritize gives you the confidence to allocate your limited time, energy, attention, and money towards activities that yield the most value, impact, and benefits for you both in life and in business. Ultimately allowing you to overcome overwhelm.
Xo,
Jess
P.S. Looking to automate more in your business this year?
With email templates, you will instantly:
- Elevate the client experience
- Increase your productivity
- Improve communication with clients + their wedding vendors
- Create brand consistency
- Save time
- Gain freedom from your inbox
- Reduce the margin for error
By applying this one simple strategy, you will no longer find yourself typing and retyping the same emails over and over again with every new client you book and every new wedding vendor you need to communicate with. Having email templates in your wedding planning business is just one simple way to instantly improve the client experience – and I know you won’t regret gaining the time back either!
