What is that next smallest step, and then as you start to take each
step, they start to reveal themselves. You don't need to know all of
the steps that happen after step B. All you need to do is complete
step B and then the next step will reveal itself, and then you tackle
that next step when it reveals itself. And if you've been waiting to have
all of those steps figured out before you start that big project, you're never
going to figure all those steps out before you start. So this is your
commission from me to just start moving forward and trust that you will figure it
out as you get to each step. Welcome to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph
Taylor. For years, I read all the books, downloaded all the freebies,
and did all the courses, but it wasn't until I started taking imperfect
action that my business had its first million dollar year. Imperfect Action is about
doing things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent action over perfect action, and moving
forward even when you're not sure you're doing it right. On this show,
you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips and strategies to build a business
that brings you more profit, more freedom, and even more joy. Are
you on the list to get my daily businesses? Every day, I'll send
you a bite sized prompt designed to help you grow your business in a more
intentional way. Sign up at Steph Taylor dot co, forward slash dbb are
at the link in the show notes. Hey, welcome back to Perfect Action.
This is episode seven hundred and twelve. Today I'm sharing the practical things
that I do in my business to avoid overwhelm because when I know, when
I talk to my audience, when I survey my subscribers and you listeners,
I know that one of the big struggles that comes up over and over again
is that you're feeling overwhelmed by all of the different things that you could be
doing in your business, all of the things that you should be doing,
all of the things that everybody is telling you you need to be doing this,
and you're getting pulled in a million different directions. And I know this
isn't just something that comes up at the very start of your business. It
is something that you can be struggling with years down the track. It's still
something that I in my business have to work to actively prevent because otherwise I
can very easily find myself with so many things on my to do list and
no real direction, or all the things are on my to do list and
I'm so busy, but I'm not moving any closer to where i want my
business to be or to the goals that I'm trying to achieve with my business.
And then I end up just doing nothing, or I end up doing
nothing of any kind of real value. Right I'll either be so overwhelmed that
I'll just go and bury my head in the sand and read a book and
pretend that there's nothing on my to do list, or I will pile my
day full of things that don't move me forward, the stuff that makes me
feel busy, the stuff that makes me feel like I'm being productive, but
that really isn't the best use of my life time, and that isn't going
to move the needle. So today I'm going to share six practical things that
I do to avoid that feeling of overwhelm or to prevent it in the first
place. And the very first one is really simple. Cook brain dumping.
If you haven't if you haven't done this before, it's such a great tool
for anything where you just have so much in your head. It's probably the
simplest one on the list. And when I have any kind of big project
with hundreds of tasks floating around in my head, all I do is I
grab a piece of paper, I grab a pen, and I write it
all down. Every single thing that is in my head floating around. I
need to do this, I need to do that, everything, even the
tiny ones like feed the dog, bath the dog, like all of the
personal tasks as well as all of the business tasks. If I can get
them out of my head and onto paper, it feels like it's now it's
a little bit more in control, and it's not just using up that brain
space now. I also find it helpful then to also break each one of
these tasks down into smaller tasks. So instead of create module one of my
online course, I would have outline module one, create slides for module one,
record module one, or I could make it even more granular, outline
module one, lesson one, create slides for module one, lesson one,
so that I've got in front of me everything that needs to be done.
And there's just something so calming about getting them out of my head and having
them on paper, seeing them there in front of me. And then for
some reason. I don't know why, but once I see the tasks in
front of me, the pretty much always seems to be fewer tasks than I
imagined when they were spinning around in my head, And it feels a lot
less daunting because now I can see what exactly needs to be done, and
I can prioritize them, and I can tick them off as I go,
which also feels really nice ticking off tasks as I go. The second little
tool or strategy is called the ab Z framework on ABZ if you're American,
and I heard this one through Shaanpuri. Now, while we don't need to
know all of the steps in achieving some kind of big project, we like
to try and fill in the gaps. Our brain is like, oh,
I need to know all of these steps, and I don't know all of
the steps, so I'm just gonna imagine what they all could be. And
it ends up being like this big floating thing, big thing floating around in
our brain, all these imaginary tasks that we've never done before, and all
of these steps that we don't actually need to We don't know what we need
to do. So the ab Z framework focuses on three things. A is
where you are today point eight B. Point B is the very next smallest
step, so the next step that you need to do towards that end goal,
and Z or Z is that end goal where you're headed with this.
So let's say that you're creating an online course. Point Z is you've created
the course. Point A is where you are at today, where you haven't
done anything. Maybe the next smallest step is starting to outline it or starting
to get really clear on who the ideal client is and what problem this course
is solving for them? What is that next smallest step? And then as
you start to take each step, they start to reveal themselves. You don't
need to know all of the steps that happen after step B. All you
need to do is complete step B and then the next step will reveal itself,
and then you tackle that next step when it reveals itself. And if
you've been waiting to have all of those steps figured out before you start that
big project, you're never going to figure all those steps out before you start.
So this is your permission from me to just start moving forward and trust
that you will figure it out as you get to each step. Okay,
Strategy number three calendar blocking. I am very guilty of thinking that I can
get fifteen hours worth of work done in a five hour day. And while
I can get more done in five hours than most people can in a day,
I probably can't get fifteen hours worth of work done in five hours.
Like I'm not superhuman. So calendar blocking means that I'm taking the tasks I
want to get done today, and I'm mapping them into my calendar based on
how long I think they will take. And on days when I have calls
and meetings, I'm obviously going to get a lot less done or I'm going
to have the capacity to get less done. So it shows me where I
can fit these tasks in in between what's already in my calendar as well.
I use the task management tool sun Sama s u nsama for this one,
and I map all of my work and my personal tasks into the same calendar.
And that way, you know, I know what I need to be
working on at any given point in the day, and if I finish quicker,
it means that I can start that next task sooner. And if I
finish that next task quicker, and I finish all of my tasks for that
day quicker. It means I can finish my date earlier, and that is
really motivating, especially when it's sunny outside and I want to go and do
something fun. I can finish my day a little bit earlier. So if
you want to try some Sama free for thirty days, you can head to
Steph Taylor dot co slash Sun Sama s U n Sama. Will pop the
link to that one in the show notes as well. The other reason why
I like calendar blocking is it means that I can actually complete my to do
list for the day. It means that I'm not just piling all these tasks
onto a list and continually rolling them over from day to day to day.
At least I can get to the end of my to do list for that
day and get that sense of satisfaction rather than that feeling of guilt that I
just haven't managed to get enough done today. Okay, number four, this
one's really simple. Actually, this one's simpler than brain dumping deleting tasks.
So you know those tasks that have been on your to do list forever that
you just keep carrying forward. They've been there for months and months and months,
and every day you're like next Thursday is going to be the right day
for me to do that task. And then next Thursday rolls around and you're
like, oh, no, I'm going to do that one tomorrow. Then
tomorrow rolls around and you're like, oh, maybe Wednesday, and it just
keeps moving forward. I have come to accept that some of these things I
will never actually get to, so I delete them, or in some summer
I can archive them into my backlog list, so I'm not permanently deleting them.
But they're sitting there in this list of backlog tasks that one day,
if I want to, I can go and pull the task out and do
it. But it's not sitting on my to do list getting carried forward forever,
and I'm not continually guilting myself for not doing this one thing. And
sometimes I'll actually ask myself, do I need to do this task? So
if there's a task that I don't want to do or that's getting carried forward
a lot, do I need to do this? And if I don't need
to do this, and I can't delegate it to somebody on my team,
and I can't simplify the task or streamline it in some way, and it
doesn't have to be done, then I just delete it. I've made peace
with deleting it, Okay. Number five not doing everything all at once,
or you know, in other word words prioritizing, which is easier said than
done. I think, like you know, I've really had to come to
terms with the fact that yes, I can do anything. No, I
can't do everything, and I definitely can't do it all today. Like I
want to everything that you are saying yes too, you are having to say
no to something else. And it really comes back to what actually matters,
What is actually important, What is moving you closer to your vision versus what
are you making important that isn't important at all? What are you prioritizing that's
not moving the needle. And unless you know what your priorities are at any
given point in your business, it's really easy to find yourself feeling overwhelmed because
you just have no direction. You're really scattered. Unless you don't know what
vision you are working towards, you're going to find it really hard to know
what priorities you need to prioritize. And I actually created a free work book
called Escape the Messy Middle, where in part of it, I take you
through a vision setting exercise so you can figure out where your business is and
what you need to prioritize to get there. You can grab that at stephtaylor
dot co slash EMM. You can send me a DM on Instagram. I'm
there at stephtaylor dot co. Send me the word EMM and I'll send you
the link to download it, and we'll also pop the link for that in
the show notes below. And then number six, the last one on my
list is planning strategic planning for the year, for the quarter and for the
you know, the month, essentially breaking it down into goals. As a
team, we do quarterly planning now and we do annual planning. And in
the quarterly planning, we review the last quarter and we set goals for the
next quarter, and then we turn those goals into action steps. And even
though we've been doing it for a little while now, I'm still guilty of
putting way too many things in our goals list for the quarter. And then
we realize when we start to do it, like, oh, we might
not be able to get all of this done. But the main thing is
that it's giving us direction, right, we know as a team what to
focus on, and then when things get busy or I get a little bit
distracted by a shiny object, I still know what needs to happen to reach
those quarterly goals, and then that helps me with prioritizing and where I'm spending
my time. So there you have it. Six practical tools brain dumping,
ABZ framework, calendar blocking, deleting tasks, prioritizing and then planning for the
year and for the quarter at once. All Right, that is it for
today's episode. Make sure you hit subscribes you don't miss any new episodes every
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