Cure Burnout and Overwhelm with the Bitton Brand (BB) Strategic Guide
Introduction
Whether you’re a consultant or a coach, running a business is no easy feat. With changes constantly arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re ought to feel increasingly overwhelmed. These heightened feelings can lead to being burnt out, hindering your productivity, the way you lead your business and how you interact with clients.
What is ‘burnout’?
Burnout can be characterized by the feeling we get when we’re stressed, overwhelmed and simply do not have any more energy to devote to a given task.
The WFH era (as a direct result of COVID-19) has prompted increased feelings of burn-out. With blurred work-home life lines, paired with an often unmanageable workload, 7 in 10 professionals are reporting to be emotionally and mentally exhausted.
More than a year into the transition, it’s time we effectively equip business owners, consultants and coaches with strategies that promote productivity and organization, resulting in a less overwhelming work life.
Strategy #1: Leverage Project Management Tools
The transition to online channels as means of communication from traditional face-to-face meetings has increased demand volume, which is great for business! This increased demand volume, however, largely fuels feelings of overwhelm. There’s lots more to do, often with the same amount of resources.
In order to keep ongoing projects organized with all resources central to one place, leveraging project management tools (such as Trello) is key to set you up for success.
Trello is a visual collaboration tool made up of ‘boards’ that enables you to organize and prioritize projects in a fun, flexible and rewarding way. A Trello board is a series of lists, with cards attached, equipped with powerful features and automation. Other useful applications include Things, Basecamp and Asana.
Strategy #2: Separate Work & Home Life
Work is stressful no matter what, and it’s easy to keep working beyond what you would in the office. While it’s convenient to work from home, it’s important to separate work and home life. Implementing the following steps will alleviate feelings of overwhelm, and enable you to increase productivity.
Tip #1: Set clear boundaries between the home and office.
How?
Communicate your working hours with your colleagues
Avoid sending/replying to emails in your off hours
Tip #2: Avoid looking at your inbox after a certain time of day
How?
Turn off notifications on work devices in the evening
Create separate personal and professional user accounts on your devices
If possible, use a separate work phone or laptop so you are able to put it away when it's time to wind down.
Tip #3: Reduce the length and frequency of meetings and calls
How?
Set aside one part of the day for meetings and calls
Many meetings are often long and draining. Establish the reason for the meeting and whether the discussion can be achieved by phone or email
Discuss the number of meetings and length of them you’re having, and determine ways to shorten or eliminate unnecessary ones.
Strategy #3: Impact Based Performance
While checking off boxes on a to-do list is satisfying, it may not be as effective as we think.
We feel as though we are completing tasks, but not actually getting much done. To tackle this, it’s vital to move away from the traditional to-do list, and move toward “moving the needle” to achieving higher levels of business success.
Moving the needle means a positive or productive gain on the scale, whether it be achieving specific growth goals, generating business prospects, or delivering on objectives set out by new or current clients.
Overall, it’s important to focus on tasks that make an impact, rather than completing tasks solely to get them done. Impact based performance increases productivity, and in turn, increases sales.
If a task won’t impact your business tomorrow, chances are, the task can probably wait.
Strategy #4: Manage your deadlines
Work volume management is often a matter of setting, enforcing and strategizing around deadlines. It’s important to set realistic dates, enforce by implementing smaller steps and strategize by prioritizing with the 80/20 rule.
Setting realistic dates:
Break down the project into chunks, so that you have a list of all the steps needed to complete the project
Keep in mind delays that you’ve seen in the past
Think about other responsibilities you have ongoing
Enforcing
Schedule interim check-ins with yourself & those working on the project with you
Work ahead of time to ensure you meet all deadlines
Strategizing
80-20 rule: 80% of outputs result from 20% of all inputs.
Enables you to identify inputs that are potentially most productive and make them the priority
Once you are able to identify the top 20% of factors that are vital to success, then you should focus on these factors the most
Setting Yourself Up for Success
Overall, navigating an online work environment can be overwhelming if you don’t set strategies in place to avoid the inevitable burn-out. Combatting these feelings can be done leveraging project management tools to stay organized, separating work & home life, thinking about impact based performance and effectively and realistically managing deadlines. Implementing these steps can and will set you up for success through increased productivity and focused efforts!
Let us help you!
As experts in the field of lead-generation, content strategy and client engagement, Bitton Brand (BB) Consulting wants to help you alleviate your stress with 1 on 1 coaching and complimentary strategies that will help you manage workloads while maximizing your return on your time and energy spent chasing leads.
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