When you run a business, you experience a new level of stress. It’s not just about providing for your family. Now, you have to worry about the expenses of the business, providing for your clients, and ensuring that all of your vendors, contractors, and employees get paid. It’s said that stress can be good for us if it’s in small amounts. However, too much stress can affect your immune system and even make it harder for you to focus. Here’s our 5 step plan to help you gain control and improve your peace of mind.
Take the Time to Define Your Goals
Your business should have goals. Take the time to consider what you want to accomplish this month, this quarter, and this year. Think them through and do your best to define them as clearly as you can in writing. This may seem like a small step, but it helps you with the next step.
Create a Reasonable Plan to Help You Meet Your Goals.
Create a plan for your business. Creating a plan helps lower your stress level because you understand what it is you’re working to accomplish. So, what is a reasonable plan? Ultimately, that’s something only you can decide. It depends on the time you have to devote to your goals, roughly how long you think each goal should take in general, and the assets you have to devote to meeting your goal.
You should have a daily plan to help you figure out your priorities and to act as your roadmap. Writing a plan doesn’t have to take a lot of time. You can spend 15 minutes creating a plan in the morning to help you control the rest of your day. You can get as detailed as you’d like or you can just create a list of priorities.
Work Your Plan
A major reason why people feel stressed out is because they make a plan, but they don’t follow it. Your plan does you no good if you don’t stick to it. Another problem is procrastination. Procrastination is the idea that maybe later you won’t feel lazy enough to tackle the project. Don’t put off hard projects or things you don’t want to do. Take action every day. Follow your daily plan.
There are two schools of thought related to taking action. The first is that you should do the hardest thing on your list first. Then, anything else that you accomplish feels like bonus points. You already feel successful because you’ve taken care of the most difficult matter. The second is doing small tasks to work your way up to the main task. Some people feel the need to build momentum so that they feel confident enough to take on their main task. That’s okay. Whatever helps you be more productive will help you take control of your stress level.
Embrace Deep Work Time
Deep work time is the time of the day (or night) that you are your most focused and productive. Figure out when you’re most focused and embrace that time. Turn off your cell phone. Turn off your email notifications. Don’t spend that time replying to emails. Use that time to work toward your business goals or your most important goal of the day. Mark off that time on your calendar so that you won’t be interrupted. Create a ritual to follow that helps you be more productive.
Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
You only have 24 hours in a day. Between your business and your personal life, things can get hectic. Find areas of your business that you can delegate. Delegating to an experienced company like Clients ARM gives you peace of mind. We help businesses get more done in a way that’s cost-effective by using innovative remote solutions. Call us to schedule your free consultation.
