7 Self-Kind Tips to Deal with Feeling Overwhelmed as a Solopreneur
Being able to manage feeling overwhelmed in your creative business, is a skill you can learn with the help of a kind and effective process, and a few tips in your toolbelt.
We are literally overwhelmed in epidemic proportions today, and building a creative business as a solopreneur doesn’t make it any less.
This is why I’m passionate about helping creators and multi-passionate entrepreneurs build personal processes for creativity and business, that are rooted in kaizen small steps self-love, and compassion.
It matters how you work. How you work is personal to you your energy level and your personality. Your private life and what goes on there affect how you work, as do the different seasons. Both calendar seasons and the seasons of business and creativity.
I rely heavily on my analog calendar. Without it, I wouldn't remember anything. I get easily overstimulated, so I am careful about what I watch on the telly. I get affected by terrible news and since that’s pretty much all there ever is on the news, I don’t watch it much.
Taking control of how much noise I allow into my head, helps me focus more on what’s important to me.
“When you feel overwhelmed, you’re trying too hard. That kind of energy does not help the other person and it does not help you. ”
7 Self-Kind Tips to Deal with Feeling Overwhelmed as a Solopreneur
Here are a few tools you can pick from, to help you manage overwhelm in your business.
Awareness. Recognizing the feeling of being overwhelmed is most important. This should stop you from beating yourself up and instead, take care of yourself
Create a process for how you work that feels good and inspiring. Leave plenty of breaks, and listen to your energy level.
De-clutter and keep de-cluttering. Simplify your space and your business. Keeping your business and your process simple is a biggie.
Write down aaaalll the things, thoughts, ideas, and plans in your head.
As often as you can. Use notebooks and calendars.Break things down into really small, enjoyable steps.
A small step is small enough when you feel no pressure to do it.Lower your expectations.
Perfectionism is a major cause of feeling overwhelmed. Try and go for "good enough" and "small and crappy". Two expressions to remember.Take a break from your phone and social media.
Maybe install an app that shows you how much time you actually spend on your phone. Talk about sensory overload!
Signs of feeling overwhelmed
You have an "I-need-to-do-it-all" thinking. A sign you’re taking yourself a little too seriously and your mental drama is out of control.
You feel you have no time to do anything. You’re constantly feeling behind like you’re drowning in work and chores that you won’t be able to get out of.
FOMO (fear of missing out). Related to the mental drama thinking that if you’re not there, you’ll miss out on something extremely important. So, you need to be everything for everybody.
You have tiredness inside and you "close down".
No sense of direction and am unable to think ahead but live from moment to moment.
You’re overstimulated related to high sensory stimulation or sensory processing sensitivity (SPS - a personality trait characterized by a high level of sensitivity to external stimuli.)
Swap overwhelm for joy
I don't know if it is possible to live a completely overwhelm-free life. Life is up and down, it has seasons. Sometimes there is more going on than other times.
Fall is always a really busy time for us with many birthdays and school meetings, so I try and make plans now and organize as much as I can so I am prepared.
I hope you can use some of these suggestions to help you minimize feeling overwhelmed in your creative business. The workload will never end, but the constant feeling of being overwhelmed by it all can.
Want help with your own personal creative process?
Hop on over to my contact page and let me know in the form what you need help with. I’d love to help you build your own creative process.
