overwhelmed?
me too…
Last week, as I was in the midst of enjoying the slower pace of July, and reflecting on the past year before my next birthday, a big, exciting new project was dropped in my lap.
Which is great news! But it definitely changed the pace of life. Being a business owner, you get used to this kind of uncertainty (excitement?), and for most, this is what keeps us going - every day is different and opportunities to expand in business and in life are around every turn.
When I get very busy I tend to get overwhelmed, which is the most difficult feeling for me personally to manage. So, after years of trial and so many errors, now I know that I have to get ahead of that feeling to keep myself in check.
Over the years I’ve tried so many things to combat the overwhelm, and by far the thing that has worked the best for me is to schedule my time. If my to-do list is only getting longer, and it starts to feel like the pace of new to-do’s is ramping up more quickly than I’m checking things off, I can keep the overwhelm at bay if I know that I have a time scheduled to tackle each item.
As the owner of Mavinhouse, I tend to have a lot of 1:1 meetings on my calendar. As a mom of two young children, I tend to have a pretty short window of time to be actually in my office, at my desk.
Enter: block scheduling.
Without block scheduling, I can look at my calendar, see 3-4 big chunks of my day dedicated to zoom meetings, with only tiny little slivers in between, and feel like there is absolutely zero time to get anything else done.
Worse, without block scheduling, when I’m actually between those meetings, I have no direction, so I’ll start to look at my email, check in with my PIC, maybe grab something to eat… then I’m left with ‘only’ 30 minutes or so before my next meeting, and feel like it’s too late to dive into something new.
Then, when I get to the end of my day, the only thing I’ve accomplished is talking on the zoom all day, and checking absolutely nothing off my growing list, which is what helps me feel in control and productive.
After block scheduling, I’ve taken time to assign time limits to tasks; I’ve carved out time on my calendar to get each one done, so my to-do list is no longer just a daunting long list of tasks, it’s my schedule; and best of all, my day is in control, and has direction.
A huge win for my tendency to feel overwhelmed.
It’s production season for all of us event pros, and we are in the busiest year of our careers. We could probably all use a little bit of structure, right? This article has been the most helpful to me on my block scheduling journey, maybe it will help you too. Try it for a week, and let me know how it goes!
Image: via garmetory