That feeling that the work you are producing isn’t as good as it could be is a gut punch of disappointment. 
Here are three reasons why it is happening, and how to flip the script…You are trying to keep too many plates spinning. Everyone I know is competent at piloting a vehicle. Everyone I know is also adept at operating their phones. Almost none of them can do both successfully at the same time. Doing more requires you to lower the quality of your output. It’s why athletes specialize at a specific position. It’s why electricians don’t fix toilets. To increase quality, decrease volume.You are moving too fast. Quality work usually requires an investment of time. When you have too much to do, you are likely to try to rush through the work and compromise the quality of your output. The nefarious consequence of speeding through your work is that you often have to do it again. If you didn’t have time to do it right the first time, you surely don’t have time to do it twice. Feeling compelled to rush is a sure sign that you need to renegotiate some things so that you can delegate, defer, or delete some of the workload you are carrying.You are trying to do it alone. I don’t know anyone who is operating at a high level that doesn’t leverage the skills of others to help them do what they do. They engage employees, accountants, machines, tradespeople, assistants, software, travel agents, nannies, lawyers, contractors, and more to help them ensure they have time for the things they are uniquely qualified to do. Being capable of doing something doesn’t mean it is the best use of your time, energy, and focus. Determine where you make the greatest impact in your small business and partner with others to accomplish the rest.If you want to produce higher quality work, do less of it so that you can give it the time and attention it deserves.
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

I used to think doing it all myself was how I needed to prove my value and validate my worth as a small business owner. Asking for help felt like an admission of weakness or failure. 
And then I got really, really busy.
Suddenly I had to renegotiate terms with my ego, because doing it all myself was no longer possible.
When I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to get where I wanted to go without leveraging help, I also began to recognize that I had actually been unintentionally holding my employees back by not giving them opportunities to take on more complex work.
Face palm.
So here’s your reminder that trying to do it all yourself is not only fundamentally limiting what you can accomplish, but it is also hurting your employees by limiting their growth.
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

Almost everyone with whom I have worked has overestimated how busy they were.
It’s not that they weren’t busy, it’s just that they felt much busier than the work demanded because they were disorganized.
How many surgeons enter the operating room hoping that the right tools will be sterilized and ready to go? Zero. That kind of organization and preparation is essential. The same goes for the chef at Benihana, the mechanic at your auto shop, and you. 
Here are five ways that being disorganized just might be making you feel a whole lot busier than you really are…Everything takes longer than it should because your tools aren’t readily available or are used up. A number of years ago I volunteered with a group from my church at a local service organization. 12 of us showed up to work for two hours, but the folks running the organization didn’t seem ready for us and at least a third of our time was ineffective because we were looking for the tools necessary to do the work. 40 minutes x 12 volunteers – 8 hours – was lost because things were disorganized. Keeping your tools ready to go is an investment in your future progress.You find yourself distracted by things in your workspace. I’m experimenting with putting my phone on a shelf across the room (or in another room) because when it’s on the desk next to me I will grab it without thinking and 10 minutes mysteriously evaporates before I know what is happening. Anything in your workspace that causes you to become distracted is your enemy. Clean up the clutter and remove the things that compromise your focus.You miss calls and meetings because your calendar is a mess. This is a foreign concept to me, because Calendar is my favorite app, but the struggle is real for so many folks. Missing calls and meetings because you don’t use your calendar effectively wrecks your credibility and creates so much more work to rescheduled appointments and do damage control. My assistant manages my calendar at this point, so don’t be afraid to get third-party help to keep you on track.You can’t delegate work that doesn’t have a clearly defined process, so you are stuck doing it all yourself. If you are like many of the clients with whom I have worked, you are convinced that the things on your to-do list can only be done by you. Okay. Maybe. But it’s more likely that they can only be done by you because you’ve never invested the time to figure out how to proceduralize (I just made that word up) and document their execution. Everything feels impossible to explain until you realize it’s actually just a series of steps that could be written down.  If someone can write a set of instructions to turn 7,541 Legos into the Millennium Falcon, you can figure out the steps required to delegate that project. Sure, it takes some time on the front end, but documenting these steps once will serve you over and over again.You are doing your work in the wrong order and making it much less efficient. My daughter spent hours doing homework on a recent evening. Around 8:30 PM she decided to put some laundry in the washing machine. If you’ve followed along for any length of time you know that I can’t shut up about laundry, but I was exasperated that she hadn’t leveraged the fact that 5 minutes of labor 3 hours ago would have allowed the washing machine to work in parallel with her WHILE she was doing homework. The order of operations matters when it comes to using your time and tools efficiently to accomplish more in less time. Getting your ducks in a row can feel like a waste of time when there is so much to DO, but it’s likely the key to getting more done in less time. 
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

Here are the two things that made it difficult for me to accomplish my goals:
The mistaken assumption that I wouldn’t have to fundamentally change my habits and behaviors to get where I wanted to go.
The mistaken assumption that I couldn’t fundamentally change my habits and behaviors to get where I wanted to go.The pursuit of interesting goals is not like taking on a challenging afternoon hike, after which you will essentially be the same person you were before you began. 
The pursuit will force you to change.
You won’t have to betray your deepest values, but you will have to learn to operate differently in order to get where you want to go. 

You will have to adopt new behaviors…and abandon behaviors that don’t serve you. 
You will have to engage in new relationships…and abandon relationships that are unhealthy. 
You will have to learn new ways of approaching the world…and abandon perspectives that limit your ability to grow. 
You will have to learn to delegate much more than you already do…and abandon the desire to do it all yourself. 
You will have to be gracious with yourself…and abandon the desire to judge yourself harshly. 
You will have to leave behind the version of yourself who isn’t capable of achieving your goals…and become the version of yourself who is.
You are likely not capable of accomplishing your goals…yet. As currently configured, you won’t get there.
Thankfully, you can upgrade your capabilities as you pursue your goals and become someone for whom your goals are completely accessible.
You just have to be willing to become.

If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

For small business owners, email is a blessing and a curse.
Your inbox is likely a place that could contain exciting opportunities (they said “yes” to my pitch!) as well as time-consuming, but necessary tasks (please fill out this 40-page form to renew your worker’s comp insurance) that distract us from our highest and most valuable work.
That’s why I believe that the person who checks their email last wins.
There are certainly situations when diving into email early gives you a strategic advantage because your most valuable work hinges on a response from someone, but as a rule, I find it much more valuable to ensure MY priorities are firmly established before I let the desires of others impede my progress.Here are three things I do every day before I crack open my email…
Get out of bed. I’m a big believer in getting out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off. I don’t immediately check my email and find myself flooded with other people’s priorities within seconds of regaining consciousness. In fact, I don’t even touch my phone. I just get up and start MY day. (I also don’t crank out two hours of work at 6AM. I just take a walk, read for a bit, chat with my family before they leave the house, and do a sudoku puzzle…)
Review MY goals and choose how I will allocate my time today. I keep a list of my priorities in a Google Doc that I review every morning as part of my Workday Startup – before I check my email – to ensure that I am reminded of the highest use of my time, energy, and focus, before everyone else has a chance to insinuate themselves into my day.
Organize my workspace and prepare my tools. Once I’ve oriented myself to the work that matters most I scan my environment for two things: the tools I will need and any distractions that are present. I then clear the decks of anything that is likely to vie for my attention while I’m working and collect any tools necessary to do the work.Which one of these feels like it would benefit you the most to implement?

If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

I’ve been researching pickleball lately because I am looking for a way to exercise without realizing I’m exercising. 
Because I know very little about pickleball, and don’t feel embarrassed at all about knowing very little about pickleball, I am seeking out and soaking up information like a sponge.
I’m watching videos and YouTube and asking for insights about how to get started from anyone who knows more than I do.
 

If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

I’m firmly convinced that I do my very best thinking on planes, but that doesn’t mean air travel is without its share of complexities that can really stress you out.
And since I spent the majority of yesterday at 30,000 feet, here are my favorite ways to make travel days less stressful…

Plan ahead. I use a packing checklist I’ve built over the years to ensure that I have all the right things packed (and charged) for the journey ahead. Shoot me a reply if you want a copy.
Get organized. My assistant prepares an itinerary for each day of my trip so that I have every detail I need (including when I need to leave X to get to Y) in a PDF on my phone.
Pack smart. I make sure my carry-on bag has all the essentials – like tylenol, my phone, wet wipes, snacks, my iPad, napkins, water, a charging cable, and airpods – close at hand. I also make sure it is packed in a way that allows me easy access to everything because unpacking your entire bag just to find a charging cable is no bueno.
Arrive early. I would rather arrive early and spend a little extra time at the boarding gate than be stressed about getting through security because I was trying to get to the airport at the last possible moment.
Get TSA Pre Check.The shorter lines and ease of navigating security are worth it.
Expect the unexpected. Traveling to and from Alaska is rarely without an element of the unexpected so I always have snacks, water, charging cables, and entertainment on my phone to make the most of delays or ensure I’m not bored if the in-flight entertainment isn’t working. 
Those are my favorites, but what about you? What helps you survive travel days?
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

You probably assume that feelings of overwhelm are a reaction to external factors.
My employees keep interrupting me…The market is changing and I need to adapt…I have so much to do and there aren’t enough hours in the day…
There are certainly plenty of external factors that will make things more difficult for you, so it’s time to make sure you aren’t making matters worse with these four nefarious habits.

Trying to do it all yourself. You can’t do it all yourself and you don’t need to. Leverage your team, they want to help. Leverage contractors who can provide you a solution while you tackle the work only you can do. Instead of measuring success by how much you do in a given week, consider measuring how much you delegate.
Underestimating rest. There is no progress without rest. You must take time to recuperate and recharge from the work you are doing. Engage in a hobby that takes your mind off of your business in the evenings. Catch up on your favorite shows to give your brain a break from the grind. Go to bed a little earlier and keep your phone out of reach. You just might return to your business with a new level of inspiration and vigor.
Resisting change. Wishing things were the way they used to be is a recipe for misery. Change can be overwhelming as you adapt to new rhythms, but it will destroy you if you are actively resisting it. Consider the Five Stages of Grief as you make your way from “I Want It That Way” to “You’re The One That I Want.”
Winging it. Everyone in your small business needs to have “Puzzle Box Clarity*” about where the business is headed…including you. It can be easy to prioritize DOING over DREAMING, but never fully clarifying a direction for your business is like prioritizing driving over navigating on a road trip. You have to know where you are going or you will waste resources and find yourself in a constant state of overwhelm.
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

It’s so easy to find yourself unsure of what to do next, or overwhelmed by how to get started, so you put off the work for an hour, a day, a week… 
Which gives you plenty of extra time to worry. Somehow the worrying always gets done.
But what if you did the opposite?
What if you chose to put off the worrying – you can always tackle that tomorrow – and just did any productive thing today.
It doesn’t have to be the perfect task or the most strategic action, it just has to be anything that moves you an inch closer to your goals.
Free yourself from the pressure of doing the “right” thing and just do anything other than worry.
The worry can wait.
Who knows? You might make enough progress today to procrastinate the worry into next week.
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.

When I reflect on the myriad calls I have shared with overwhelmed small business owners, the one thing that surprises me the most is that nothing has ever been particularly surprising.
Sure, a few circumstances have been a little more exotic than others, but the underlying themes are ultimately the same:
I’m stuck and I don’t know what to do… There aren’t enough hours in the day…My employees are driving me crazy…Too many things are changing at once…I’m struggling to prioritize the work…
Every caller is at their wits end, fully convinced that their situation is uniquely complex. Unsolvable, even.
And every caller is wrong.
I don’t share this to minimize the experiences of these owners, I’ve tangled with each of these situations in my own businesses – many times – and I understand exactly how they feel.
I share this to illuminate something I hope will encourage you:
You are not alone.
Your problems feel special because they are emotionally charged for you, but many (if not most) other small business owners are dealing with some variation of the same thing.
Take courage! Your experience isn’t unusual and the overwhelm you are experiencing can be remedied! 
If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.