Danielle Guerin

Posts Tagged ‘stress’

Jack Welch didn’t empty the trash cans at GE. Steve Jobs doesn’t answer all of Apple’s emails. And I bet Meg Whitman never wrote a single piece of code for eBay. Instead, these high-flying execs knew that in order to take their companies to the top, they needed to delegate and outsource.

Put simply, if you try to do it all yourself, your head is going to explode. Why not accept that fact upfront and consistently focus on the parts of your business where you bring the greatest value?

Though delegating will save you tons of stress in the long term, in the short term it can be a little anxiety-producing. Here are some tips if you’re just starting down the delegation path:

Choose time limited tasks.

The best jobs to start delegating are those that have a concrete beginning and end. It’s much easier to ask someone to reproduce CDs and mail them for you then it is to ask them to “improve your inventory program.” Start with tasks that you could easily create a checklist for and that have a start-to-finish quality.

Set measurable goals.

Define what “completion” looks like for you, and share that picture with the person to which you’ve chosen to delegate the task. For example, say “When you’re done, all the CDs will be reproduced, packaged, labeled, and shipped, and you’ll have a receipt from the shipping company for me.” The more specific you are in the end result you desire, the more likely it is that your helper will do a satisfactory job.

Focus on the outcome, not on the process.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make when they delegate is they micromanage the process. Every step of the way, they’re looking over the helper’s shoulder, making sure everything is done “right.”  This is going to cause multiple problems and is just so WRONG. Worry less about HOW the work is getting done and focus on the end result. You’re not saving time if you’re managing every step of the process. Remember, you’re trying to make less work for yourself, not more. Trust your judgment – you chose someone you could depend on, so now depend on them.

Focus on “good enough” not “perfection.”

This is a tough one for work-at-home entrepreneurs, who tend to be of the “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” school of thought. To save yourself time and stress, you’ve got to let go of that expectation. Some jobs don’t need to be done perfectly – it’s fine if it’s just done at all! There are no awards for the person who does the “best” job of mailing your CDs because just getting them out the door on time is good enough, right? How much better can you get?

Evaluate the efforts and fine tune as necessary.

There’s always room for improvement – on both sides! Ask your helper where you could have done a more effective job of managing the process, and be open to her suggestions. Then if you see some ways she could work more effectively, suggest them in a constructive manner. Make sure your review of the process is OUTCOME related, not PROCESS related. You’re worried about the bottom line here!

Now that you’ve gotten over the fact that you can’t do it all and are delegating some tasks, you’ve got a few minutes to breathe deep and take a look at yourself. Have you been eating right and exercising? Are you sleeping well? Do you take any time at all for yourself? Perhaps you never thought you had the time to take care of yourself. Maybe you never thought it was important to take care of yourself.

That’s all going to change. You have a lot to lose if you don’t take care of YOU first and foremost.

I you want to start small, delegating limited tasks, you may start by delegating things like housecleaning, bookkeeping, cooking or even smaller tasks to your spouse or children if they are young enough. There is REALLY no reason why you should do it all yourself.

Notice how I used the term helper and not VA? There’s a reason for that. A true VA is much more than someone you delegate limited tasks to.  Virtual Assistants are entrepreneurs and frankly, I would get bored if clients only delegated limited tasks… Some of the best Virtual Assistants I know are proactive, make suggestions to their clients and offer solutions not only reduce to their clients time and stress, but to help their clients expand the business and increase income as well.

If you think back over the most stressful times in your life – illness for yourself or a family member, loss of a job or major client, a death in the family – I would venture to say that there’s a common thread through all of these stressful times: lack of control.

Because home-based entrepreneurs see themselves as pioneers, we pride ourselves on our take-charge attitudes and get-it-done approach to life. Therefore, not being in charge of what’s happening can cause us a great deal of anxiety. We want to fix things, now. When we can’t fix things, or we don’t know how to fix things, we can become very stressed and even freak out a bit.

When faced with a situation where you’re not in control, here are three ways you can maintain an even keel, despite the foul weather:

Find something you CAN control.

When the world is spinning away from you, it can feel like there’s nothing you can control. Not true! In any situation, there’s SOMETHING you can control. Let’s say your major client is having financial difficulties. You may think you are at the whim of their financial ups-and-downs, but you can start regaining a feeling of control by searching out other clients to replace this financially strapped client if they would need to part ways with you. Or you could get your own finances in order and do some proactive belt-tightening so that the loss of one client doesn’t send your world into a tailspin.

Perhaps your website programmer says your whole site needs to be overhauled, and it’s going to cost you BIG money. Instead of retreating to your bed with a bottle of Tylenol, you could get on message boards and ask other developers if their opinion is the same, or you could hire a consultant just for a second opinion. You are NOT helpless, and the sooner you find something to control, the sooner you’ll feel less anxious about the future.

Focus on the moment.

Stress comes when we stop focusing on the here and now and start ruminating over the horrible things we wish hadn’t happened yesterday, or about the horrible things we fear will happen tomorrow. If we ground ourselves in the present moment, we find we’re still alive, still functioning, and still able to make decisions. Once we lose site of that fact, though, the stress seeps in. When your thoughts start spinning out of control, gently reel them back in. Take a few deep breaths, remind yourself that you are okay, right now, and then find something productive to do in this moment to protect against what you fear.

This may be difficult for some people to do because they honestly don’t believe they can control their thoughts. It’s true that when our mind is spinning out of control, thoughts do seem to just keep popping into your head. One method health professionals use to quiet discomforted patients is with visualization and repeating positive phrases. This actually does help to quiet the mind so you can gain control, once again, of your thought processes. Once you have quieted your mind, you can choose to focus on the here and now and take back control.

Remind yourself of your expertise and experience.

Stress also comes when we are afraid we can’t handle the horrific scenarios we’ve created for ourselves when we doubt our competence. If our client goes away, then what? If the economy tanks further, then what? If our website crashes, then what? If we knew we’d be okay in the future because we have the expertise to handle these situations, the stress about the future would be a thing of the past.

One tip to combat that stress is to remind yourself of all the tough circumstances you’ve already navigated through successfully. Think about situations you went through in the past and how you handled them. While past success is no guarantee of future performance, as they say in the stock market, it still is a pretty good indication of how things will turn out.

Setting your priorities and sticking to them is a great step towards reducing your stress, but it won’t help much if you don’t have time to finish all the other menial tasks that are involved in running an at-home business. Items like billing, filing, ordering ink for your printer, and a million other little things that pile up over time still need to be done.

Let’s look at five methods to help you keep better track of where your time goes, and keep on top of your schedule:

Write everything down.

Famous productivity expert David Allen, author of Get It Done, recommend getting your to-dos out of your brain and onto paper. I can attest that this method works! When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I have found one of the greatest ways to de-stress is to sit down and write out everything I have to do that’s got my head spinning. Whether those are big projects, little five-minute tasks, or anything, it all goes down on paper as my brain is churning out the words. When I can actually see my thoughts on paper, I can start sorting and prioritizing (see Section 2 above).

Keep track of how long a task takes you.

It’s a common psychological trick we play on ourselves – we overestimate how long it takes to complete unpleasant tasks, and we underestimate how long we spend on pleasant items. Get real by writing down the actual time it takes you to do things like file papers, log receipts, and any other tedious task. Then you have a concrete estimate the next time you think, “Oh, that’s going to take all day!”

Minimize interruptions.

Turn off your email alert noise, put your phone ringer on mute, and clear your desktop before you jump into a task that requires concentration. Fewer interruptions and distractions allow you to get in that concentrating “sweet spot” where you’re humming along and working at a pleasant clip. That means you’ll get your work done faster and be less stressed. Constant interruptions ultimately result in needing to re-prioritize your day, over and over and over again. You can see how the stress you feel just keeps escalating without minimizing the interruptions each day.

Break down large projects.

Big projects – website overhauls, writing reports, planning marketing campaigns, creating a newsletter – can be overwhelming. When faced with a large project, break it up into tasks you can complete in one sitting, preferably in under 20 minutes. That way, instead of looking for a free afternoon to tackle the project all at once (which you’ll never get!), you just need to squeeze in 20 minutes here and there until the project is completed. I don’t know anyone who can’t find 20 minutes, but ask an entrepreneur to block out 8 hours for a project, and you’ll receive in turn a stunned glare.

Take advantage of “lost” time.

Our days are full of five minute breaks between activities. We call these “dead” time. You may be sitting in car-line at your child’s school, or in line at the pharmacy, or even waiting for a pot of water to boil. There you are, simply waiting for something to happen. Keep a notebook with a running list of tasks that can be completed in 5 minutes or less. Schedule an appointment, call a friend to set up a lunch date, clean out your voice mail, file your nails – anything that you know you need to do but don’t get around to doing.

Now when you have “dead” time, glance down at your notebook with the list of 5 minute tasks and start at the top. Work your way down the list every time you find yourself with a few free minutes. You’ll be amazed at how much you accomplish when you’re ready to go!

The power of time management can have you thinking you can do it all now! You are Superwoman! You are Superman! But, before you go leaping those tall buildings, stop and take a deep breath. There are still things beyond our control. Yes, we can do a lot, but we can’t do it all. Life sometimes gets in the way, even of the most on-task entrepreneur.  In my next post, we’ll take a look now at how to recover from situations beyond our control.