Chaos to Clarity: Conquering Overwhelm in Your Startup Journey

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It doesn’t begin with overwhelm, it starts with excitement. A passion, a light is lit inside you, and so you feel energized and determined.

You have started a business that brings spark to your everyday life. It’s unique and suits you! You’re enjoying the work, the creating and the outcomes. Life is good, things are going to be great.

A few weeks or months go by and you notice your energy is down, you feel tired, you’re getting cranky and impatient. Things are starting to pile up because you’re in this solo. This is your baby but, suddenly, you realize all the different hats you wear daily.

• Researching ideas
• Writing copy
• Quality control
• Editing
• Budgeting
• Accounting
• Marketing

While you’re wearing all these hats, your workload is increasing and you’re trying to maintain a work-life balance.

Wait a minute! This was supposed to be fun, I was enjoying it, what happened?

Chaos in being overwhelmed

As you continue to juggle numerous tasks, your workload begins to pile up. No entrepreneur enjoys every single aspect of running a business. Most have a passion for something and learn the rest.

You are not alone. Everyone goes through these struggles when starting and we have our strengths and weaknesses. We try to adapt while we gain the skills necessary.

The overwhelmed feeling can become paralyzing to many of us, so, often we end up in a frozen state looking at the piles of work. We wonder if it is possible or even worth it to tackle.

Most often, feeling overwhelmed stems from:

• Huge workload (source: Verywell Mind)
• Isolation due to long hours of dedication
• Decision fatigue because you have to make every single choice on your own (source: AMA)
• Lack of balance between work and home leads to increased stress
• Financial uncertainty – if money doesn’t come in quickly enough it leads to financial stress and worries as you put more pressure on yourself

Understand the learning curve

When you’re feeling any of the above things, you feel overwhelmed and it is hard to settle your mind. You’re losing sleep and you have 100 thoughts, making it hard to focus on any one of them.

You have to remember that entrepreneurship comes with its learning curve. As you experience more things and move along in your journey you will notice it is filled with highs and lows. There is no one correct path or way to learn and there is no direct line to the end.

As with everything else in life, starting a business has good days and bad days. There is no way around it. However, awareness of this learning curve and being conscious of it, when you’re in a moment of overwhelm, helps get you through it. 

Example: As a worrier and over-thinker, sometimes I overwhelm myself by looking into the future and realizing how far I still have to go. At times, I can feel the effects building in my body. Before I go into a panic I can remind myself that I’m learning and that if I were to look back, I would see how far I have already come.

Sometimes it is just understanding that :

• You have already learned and improved a lot
• It is a learning curve and it would be unrealistic to expect every day to be perfect
• No one is perfect and it is good to be imperfect to continue moving forward
• You will continue to learn as you move forward

This is what helps me cope with moments of extreme overwhelm. You need to have a healthy mindset and accept that this journey takes time, persistence and learning.

A Guide to conquering overwhelm

The power of a healthy mindset

From my example, you can see that by being aware of challenges and the fact that they will always be there, you stop expecting yourself to be a master of everything. You accept that you are not and it relieves the pressure you put on yourself.

A healthy mindset is the most important part of overcoming overwhelm. When you can keep a clear, open mind, you can keep attention on the big picture, not the immediate obstacles in your face.

Of course, having a healthy mindset is not going to complete the mountain of work in front of you. Here are some strategic methods to try to implement as well.

Strategic methods to manage overwhelm

Set SMART goals

Look at what needs to be done and set goals. Some may require you to break them down into smaller goals to prevent burnout. Goals will help you manage your time, so don’t be hard on yourself if it seems you have a lot.

Example: I’ve always enjoyed the creative part of running a business over the bookkeeping part. (I can’t be the only one!!) I was falling immensely behind so I set a goal to spend just 30 minutes on it every day until I was caught up. After that, I set aside 30 minutes once a week to maintain.

Prioritize your goals

Sometimes it’s easy to follow through on enjoyable goals but you need to look at what is most important and urgent first. The longer you leave those, the more stressed you will be.

Example: I learned about the Eisenhower Matrix from reading a blog post from James Clear. Use the Eisenhower Matrix as a simple and clear visual to prioritize your tasks. It’s a very clear way to depict what needs to be the top priority and what can be left for later. It follows the DO it, DELAY it, DELEGATE it and DELETE it. 

Time Management

Reading the book Limitless by Jim Kwik I learned about the Pomodoro Technique. It involves taking a brief break every 25 minutes. Can be as simple as looking around, away from your computer, stretching beside your chair or going for a fresh air walk.

Example: when I’m not in a creative flow and I’m doing bookkeeping I find it more difficult for me I cannot focus for as long as a time. By taking these small breaks I give myself the chance to have a break and reset before I get frustrated and overwhelmed. When I go back to it, I feel more refreshed and energized.

Build a support system

A support system behind you will help in massive ways. I’ve always read that we should group with entrepreneurs just like us. They will understand what we are experiencing, share tips and support us. There is huge value in this.

However, when starting, you may not know where to look and feel too uncertain or shy to put yourself out there. So you also need a family and friend support system. These supports will help encourage you, allow you to vent without judgement and help you remember that you need fun sometimes too! Keep the balance. 

They are great to help you cope when you’re in a moment of overwhelm and you need someone to talk to. They can be just a call or drive away. 

Mindful methods to cope with overwhelm

Along with the strategic methods to beat feeling overwhelmed, there are some extremely useful mindful exercises to use as well. 

Journaling

I am new to this. I have tried before and done a couple of days then stopped. It never felt right and I never found it helped. UNTIL I was feeling very overwhelmed and I had no one to talk to at that moment. I decided to try writing down my struggles. Journaling my thoughts forced me to be clear about my struggles. Once I was clear on my struggles, I was able to look at them from a better perspective.

Visualization

“To do something that you don’t think you are capable of, you must first visualize it.” 

Tony Robbins

Imagine yourself completing the mountain of work in front of you, and see and feel how you would feel if you did it. Visualize the moment of actual completion in its entirety. Not just as a thought, but really how you would feel in that moment. Feel how much lighter you would feel as one pile after another was completed. 

You can use it for anything!

How to continue the journey

Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint to the finish line. It is important to take care of your mindset and understand that there is a learning curve. Everyone will be different so allow yourself to be imperfect.

Prepare yourself for new challenges and keep showing up, but have some strategies in place to manage them when they arise. Set goals, prioritize them and manage your time.

Most of all, take care of yourself. Build a solid support system because when times get tough, you will love having someone there to help you. Use journaling to clearly define your struggles and lessons learned and visualize when you have trouble believing in yourself.

You got this!