#187: A Systematic Way to Tackle Overwhelm

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia, and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. Just a quick reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com episode 1, 8, 7. Those notes always include a summary of our discussion here, as well as any links to resources we might mention during the show. So today we're going to be talking about a systematic way to tackle Overwhelm and this is going to be a shorter episode than normal. I want to keep this concise because I want to get right to it and I want to give you a different way of looking at Overwhelm and solving this problem, of having way too much to do and trying to figure out how are you going to get to it, how are you going to get things done faster, how are you going to get potentially some help and how you can make some changes in your business so you can start earning more and less time. And a tool that's really helped me kind of frame this or think about this in a way that's more systematic and actually more helpful for my coaching clients is something I came up with called the Overwhelm Reduction Pyramid. So the Overwhelm Reduction Pyramid. And I'm going to need you since this is a podcast. Unfortunately, when I'm working with clients, I usually draw this out, but I think I can describe it to you in a way where you can kind of start thinking about it. Of course, if you're somewhere where you can take some notes, draw this out, that's always helpful. I find that many of us get caught up in just kind of the gadgets and the tools and the apps and all these fancy shiny objects that seem like they're really going to move the needle in our business and help us get more done, be more productive, get more help, get more free time and so forth. And while there's always a time and a place for things like that, I'm a huge believer in fundamentals, tackling and blocking. So just starting with the low hanging fruit, starting with the things that are really going to make a big long term impact, something sustainable, and then building on top of that rather than, you know, jumping straight ahead to something that's, you know, kind of a flash in the pan app or hack or Situation that may or may not work depending on the circumstances or, you know, as things change. So I believe in focusing on the big important fundamental changes first. The things that are going to make the biggest difference the fastest. So taking an 8020 approach in much of the work that I do in my coaching business with working with coaching clients is taking that 8020 approach. So I want you to draw out a pyramid or you know, kind of visualize that pyramid. And let's start at the very bottom, the base of the pyramid. This is your low hanging fruit. There's so many things you could do here that will make a positive impact right away that really until you've exhausted all the possibilities in this the base of the pyramid, there's no reason to go too deeply into the other levels of the pyramid. So let me give you some of the things that kind of fall into this category. To do list. Okay. Now I don't believe that everyone should be working off a just a to do list. I think you should go beyond that and we're going to talk about that. But I'm surprised how many people go about the day without even a to do list. They just kind of go in and are just reacting the whole time. Well, I know I got to work on, you know, this project, so they just dive right in. There's really no plan. They just know that they got to be working on that. Okay, great. I think you should still take a step back and figure out, okay, so I'm going to be working on that. But you know, what else do I need to accomplish today? What are some other high priority items? Things that are really going to help me get my business moving forward. Now, of course things happen in the short term. Sometimes you are on deadline, sometimes you're in a situation where that's the only thing you can focus on. I get that. But many people don't approach their day, they just approach their day that way. Every single day. It's just like, I don't know, what should I work on today? And I think this is the thing. So they go ahead and start. So even starting with a simple to do list, that's the first, the right step in the right direction. Now I believe in taking it one step further. And this is my next suggestion is prioritizing your to do list. So, okay, which ones are A items, which ones are B items and which ones are C items. Now, everyone has a different definition as to what makes it an A, a B and a C. A items are typically going to be one of two things. Either this is key because this is due in two days. So this has got to be an A. So in other words, high urgency. The other category that could make it an A is the fact that this is important. It may not be urgent, but this is really important to you. Your personal life, your goals or your business. Okay, so either one could be an A. You decide which one you're going to assign an A to. But I think they got to meet one of those criteria. It's got to be either time sensitive, so urgent, or it's got to be important. I think a healthy combination of both is a good thing. You don't want to have always your A items be just the urgent stuff, but you also don't want all of them to be just the important but not urgent stuff. Because, you know, we do have deadlines, we have things that have to be done. So anyway, a item that's typically the description or the criteria that I give, B would be, you know what, once I'm done with the A's, these are the next important things, right? It's just the way it sounds. And C, or you know what? This would be nice to do if I can. It'd be great. But really, at the end of the day, the way I try to look at it is I definitely want to complete all my A items. That's a must. So I don't assign too many A's to a to do list because that's unrealistic. So depending on what they are, I may have quite a few. Sometimes I may have one. But I structured in a way that I can win. So I want to game the system, I want to set myself up for success. And I don't want to assign too many A's because then it loses the effectiveness. So it's gotta be enough that when I'm assigning them, I'm thinking through, okay, is this realistic? I got three right now on my list. Can I get these three done? And if I can, then great. I don't care if I get to the B's, but I have to cross off all my A's. Okay? At least that's the way I approach it. Sometimes it doesn't happen. You know, things do happen. Okay, so it's life gets in the way. Totally get it. But those should be the exceptions, not the rule. Along with that, it's a good idea to as you're prioritizing A B's and C's to start trimming the fat, you know, to just take the fat off your list. The things That I do need to get to that I really, I want to do it. But based on where I am right now and what's important and urgent, that's something that I'm going to go ahead and just punt. I'm going to just move it over into next month and just make sure you have a system for tracking that. But you know, it may not be fat in the future, but it just right now with everything going on, maybe it's just too much right now and it's really doesn't belong your schedule or your to do list today or this week. Another idea, and again we're still at the base of the pyramid is to start your day by scheduling your day hour by hour. Now a lot of people freak out, a lot of creative types freak out when I say that. It's like, oh my God, that's so restricting. Ed, listen, you can do this however you'd like. I don't care if you say 8 to 12, project work, 1 to 2 break and then 2 to 4 reading and catch up and calls, email. I don't care how you do it. The whole point is not to jam pack your day, okay? That's how a lot of people misinterpret this advice is. You know, I just got to be very precise in 15 minute increments. Nothing like that. Okay? The whole point behind this is if you don't have something objective to follow throughout the day, when things start changing, when your mood shifts, when emotions can run high because things change, things come up. If you don't have something objective to follow, you will let the day and circumstances guide your actions throughout the day and your decisions. You need something that you have planned early in the morning or whenever you start your day when your mind is clear. Okay? And I strongly suggest that you do this hour by hour. Okay? Again, you can keep it very open, but it still has to be very precise in terms of from this time to this time. You can and should build buffer time. You can and build should build in breaks, okay? So you should build in time for, you know, yourself and to go to the gym and to pick up the kids and to help them with homework, all those things, that's cool. But if those things fall within the parameters of when you start work and end work. Yeah. Schedule those in. If it's after that, then that's completely up to you. So for instance, going back to the help kids with homework, if that's after you're done with work at 3:30, then you might find, well, I don't really need to schedule that part hour by hour. Okay. Because I'm done at work at 3:30. Fine. The point is have something objective that you can follow. It's amazing what happens once the day starts. And if we don't have a plan to follow, kind of that's front and center that we can see and just abide by, we're going to let the day just kind of take us away from what's really important. One idea that I've been talking about for a long time is the 15 minute focus technique. And this is something that I learned from my friend and colleague Steve Sloan White, who learned it from marketer Dean Jackson. And I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's changed the way that I tackle work and the way I structure my days. A lot of people do something similar called Pomodoros, if you're comfortable with that. Those are typically shorter increments. I believe Pomodoros are 25 minutes. The 50 minute focus technique is a little bit more intense. It works better for me in what I do. So you have to figure out what's best for you. But it's very simple. They're two hour blocks and I like to work in two hour increments on projects. That feels right to me. That's about as much as I typically like to work on any one thing because I like variety. Some people like to, you know, do more, that's fine. But the good thing about this is a very flexible and modular approach to scheduling into getting and maintaining focus throughout the day. It's very simple. You set a timer for 15 minutes, 50 and you turn everything off. All alerts, all your email, close the door, turn your ringer off and you work for 50 minutes on something. When the timer goes off, you get up and take a 20 minute break. Now I strongly suggest that break be outside of, away from your desk. Like I really encourage people to, to just kind of walk away and clear their heads. You really need to recharge and 20 minutes is a really good amount of time. Some people get a little worried that it's too big a break. But look, if you've been working in a focused way for 50 minutes, you really need to replenish. 20 minutes is about what you need. So 20 minutes, when the 20 minutes are up, you get back on your desk and you work for another 15 minutes. 5050 20, 50 is a two hour block, which works perfect for me. Many times what I try to do is I try to do two of these in a day. Usually for me it's going to be the morning. So 50, 20, 50, I'll take a 30 minute break and then I'll do another 50, 20, 50. I will get more done in those two hour blocks than most people get done in a whole day. It's really remarkable. So anyway, something again, easy, simple, that you could try that doesn't involve changing all aspects of your business. Another opportunity. Again, we're still at the base. Okay, so notice all these things that you could do without, like having to hire a virtual assistant or do some things that are going to require more work. Outsource personal tasks and responsibilities. Mowing your lawn, keeping up your yard, cleaning your house, those sorts of things. Sometimes under that category fall things such as like meal prep, meal boxes, like hellofresh and so forth. So if you're the one who does the cooking, I know many times for a year and a half we actually ordered hellofresh because just the stress of having to plan and shop for all these meals. If I could get two or three a week that were sent to me, I can't explain it, but it really made a big difference. The decision fatigue went way, way down. So that to me falls under personal outsourcing, grocery delivery, getting help with your kids, maybe a part time nanny who could pick them up from school or for preschool, any of those things. I hate to call that outsourcing, but it really kind of falls under that category. Okay, so I don't mean it to sound impersonal. And then simple professional outsourcing. So when I say simple, I mean nothing too drastic. There are two incredible opportunities. I would actually even say three to consider. The first two are, I think, a must do and one is proofreading. So if you're a writer just outsourcing your proofreading to someone who's really good at that and you trust to me was just a game changer. I can take a draft to about the 90% level and after that, getting it to 100% takes a lot of time and energy. For me, I found that if I could take it to the 80, 90% level and work with an editor or a proofreader and have them take it all the way to the finish line was an incredible relief and a great use of my time and financial resources. Because they can do what they do best, I can do what I do best and they could take it to the finish line better, faster, cheaper. So proofreading is one of them. Also, the quality of my drafts went way up. My clients have noticed it's just When I did this shift, I think it was like 13, 14 years ago. One of the best things I did. Transcriptions are another no brainer. I'm surprised how many people try to transcribe the interviews that they've recorded with clients and prospects. Look man, you can get this done. So cost effectively these days, just pay somebody to get it transcribed, okay? And you know what? Charge enough. A lot of people tell me I can't afford that. You know what? Charge enough for your work that these things are a non issue. In fact, that should be a goal. Well, Ed, I'm not there yet. That's fine. Make it a goal. Set a goal that you know what? I'm going to charge enough soon that I can afford to pay a proofreader and a transcriptionist to get this stuff done, okay? Make it a non issue. It's a cost of doing business. All right? So that's really the base of the pyramid. Notice all the opportunities, okay? Here without having to do something intense, something crazy. The next level up of the pyramid. I just got a couple of things here. One of this is using my capacity planner. Look, capacity planner, you don't have to overthink it. All it is is a way where you can take a block for each of your days and then estimate your. Not really estimate, just state your total work capacity for any given day. So in my case, as an example, I will set eight hours for any given workday. And that means that, you know what, I'm going to put tasks in here or projects and I'm going to assign a time that I'm going to dedicate to that task or that project that day. But at the end they need to all add up to no more than eight hours. So it allows me to kind of plan for my work capacity. If I see that in one day I've kind of moved and scheduled project work or all these things that add up to more than eight hours, that's too much. So I need to move some things around. And it's different from an hour to hour schedule. It's different from a to do list. It's higher level thing. It really just allows you to balance and plan for and just organize your work capacity. You only have so much work capacity every given day. And I'm surprised how many people, especially writers, aren't really keeping track of that and managing it so that they can make sure that they're not taking on too much or that they don't have unused capacity that they really could be, you know, trying to fill up under in this layer, there's. There's one more thing, which is getting into the habit of saying no. Saying no to clients that aren't a good fit. Clients who are requesting things that are unreasonable to rush projects. Rush projects happen, but over and over again, right? Personal stuff, things that you volunteer for, that you said yes to at one point, and now you realize, you know, this is just not working out. So many of us stay in those situations because we are afraid of saying no. Saying no is one of the most freeing, one of the most important things you could do to really, again, reduce that overwhelm in your life and in your business. All right, so moving right along to the next layer above that. So this is layer number three again, we're getting closer to the top of the pyramid. And you'll see why it's shaped like a pyramid here in a second. I'll explain that. Firing a client, okay? Firing a client who's no longer a good fit. So this is a little bit above the previous layer in that before, you were saying no, maybe you're establishing and maintaining some boundaries. Now it's like, you know, this is not working out. I think it's best if we move on. The flip side of that is trying to take an existing client that you love working with and putting them on retainer. So pitching a retainer agreement to them, a retainer deal where both sides can win and benefit from this, is a great way to reduce overwhelm and free up time. Because the more you start doing for a client, well, first of all, that's recurring revenue, so that's predictable revenue, which is fantastic. And second of all, you're able to get better at the work. And if you hold that retainer steady, you're able to get the work done faster, but still get paid the same, which means your internal hourly rates or income go up, even if you're not charging by the hour. Right. So if you're able to charge the same but do the work faster, you're able to earn more for every hour you spent on that work. So firing clients who are no longer a good fit, doing it gracefully and professionally, of course, and looking for opportunities to put one or two clients on retainer. And then finally, we get to the very top of the pyramid. And only in this area do I recommend looking at bringing in an outside resource or resources. So this is, you know, remember what I said earlier at the beginning of the conversation, where a lot of people jump right into the fancy thing, the shiny object, the app, the big investment. And I Think it's a mistake. There's so many things you could do first that are easier and will get you great results with minimal effort or investment. I would work on those first, but then at the top of the pyramid, once you've done all these things, then it makes sense to start thinking about bringing in, for instance, a virtual assistant. If you're in a place in your business where you know what, you could use some admin help. And I think more writers and copywriters are here than they realize. One of the problems I think we've created in a freelance business is it breeds this thinking. Like, I don't want to say people are cheap, but when you didn't have to invest in office space and inventory and employees and all these other things, like many traditional businesses have to do, creates this mindset of, I need to keep all the profit for myself, and if I can't do it, then forget it, it's just not going to get done. I'll find a way to get it done myself. That is the wrong kind of thinking. I think the healthier way to grow your business and grow it in a way that's really going to be sustainable and it's going to keep you happy, is to think of it as a business. And I don't know of any other business where you can avoid investing and just be successful over the long haul. So I think many of us need to get out of this mindset of, oh, I can't afford it. You know what? Don't say you can't. Find a way to make it work. Find a way to make it work, even if it's one baby step at a time. The moment you say, oh, I can't afford that, basically what you're saying is, I'm not going to invest in my business. I'm going to do everything, and if I don't have the money for it, well, so be it. I'll get it done somehow. Well, that's just going to add stress. It's going to create problems. You're going to get caught in the hamster wheel. Okay, so look, yeah, at first you keep all the profits. That is unsustainable. You need to find if you really want to earn more and less time, you need to invest in resources. A virtual assistant, even for just very little. Every month, 50, 100, $200 a month, there's so much that a virtual assistant can do for you. You'd be surprised all the tasks they can take off your plate. And you know what? It may not be an Overnight thing, you can maybe start really, really small with some very simple things. In fact, that's typically the way that I recommend people do it, because as you build trust, as you find that this is the right person, you'll be able to find other opportunities for that person to help you. So a virtual assistant is a great kind of entry level, entryway into the world of bringing in a resource. A project manager, if you've gotten to a point where you know you're working with several clients, some of these projects are complex, they got many moving parts, and you're project managing this thing, man. Let me tell you, a project manager who's good at what they do can help take so much of that off your shoulders and help you focus on what you do best, which might be doing the actual writing, doing the client relations, doing the business development, you know, growing these opportunities. And last but not least, and there, of course, there are others, but kind of hitting on the major categories is a potential new resource you could bring. Is a writer of some sort. A lot of people, that's when I lose them. They say, no, Ed, it's not going to happen. People hire me because they want me to do the writing. You know what? That might be true, but I want you to challenge yourself there. Not necessarily true. There are opportunities. And again, they don't have to be overnight, but there are opportunities. Not with every client, not with every project. We might be able to bring someone in who's not looking to you as a stepping stone. They're not looking to use you and then leave you. They don't want to grow their own business. They don't want to go find their own clients. They would love the opportunity to work with somebody like you and just make a little bit of extra money. They already have the skills, okay? They know what they're doing, but they're not interested in going back to the workforce. They're not interested in growing their own freelance business. And if you could start out with some really small things with no promise of getting to a huge level of work or commitment, you know what? Sometimes depending on where you are and what your goals are, it might make sense. So my challenge to you with these resources that I've just named is don't automatically say, oh, I can't afford that. That's not for me. That's not the way my business works. My business is different. You know what? Let me tell you something. You are unique. Your business, your challenges are not unique, okay? So I mean that with a lot of love and respect. So look, these are opportunities to again, just start freeing up more time, earning more and less time, reducing stress and bringing more joy into your business. Now let's talk about the shape the pyramid. The reason it's a pyramid is as you go up the pyramid, it's going to require more time, commitment and effort in your part. And that's why you want to start at the bottom. Okay? Start with a low hanging fruit because there's an 8020 effect here. Okay? These are things that can make a big, big impact relatively quickly as you move up the pyramid. Even though it takes more time, commitment, energy and financial resources, the impact that it can have on your overwhelm goes up. So that is linear time and impact go up as you move up the pyramid. And the only problem is as you go up the pyramid, so does the difficulty of making it happen, of executing, of deploying or implementing that idea or resource or doing that thing. So the lower the level in the pyramid, the easier it is to do. That's why I say start there. It's also going to require less time. It's not may not have as big an impact as some of the other things. But start at the bottom, work your way up little by little. The point is to start somewhere and you know, just do this gradually. It's not going to happen overnight. But if you are committed to creating a business that enables you to earn more and less time doing work you love for better clients, you have to start moving in this direction and do it methodically over time. I hope you enjoy this. I hope you found it valuable. This has been Ed Gambia. Have a great rest of the day. Take care. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher dot com.