There are few people who know the feeling of overwhelm better than small business owners – and it can bleed into every facet of our lives.

Indeed, a recent report found that nearly half (45 per cent) of all small business owners “feel stress from work invading their personal lives at least more than half the time”.

Indy Griffiths of Barge Creative – a design studio she’s been running since high school – is someone who knows what she wants in her career and is willing to put in the long hours to achieve it. But there’s only so much time in the day, and in her line of business even the smallest mistake could result in the loss of a client.

In our Small Business Help Desk initiative, Kochie’s Business Builders answers your small business questions. Indy asked us: “When there are so many hats to wear and so many things to do to improve operations, how do you choose where to start and make a dent in things without getting overwhelmed?”

Small Business Help Desk: A question about wearing many hats

In those exciting early days of entrepreneurialism, Griffiths says she didn’t mind wearing all the different hats herself.

“When I first started, I didn’t have much of a client base so I enjoyed shifting between all the tasks because I had the time,” the Sydney-based entrepreneur says. “As I’ve got bigger and bigger, I still wear most of those hats. I outsource a tiny bit but it’s a lot more to juggle when my client work could technically take up 100 per cent of my week.”

Griffiths reiterates that feeling of ‘overwhelm’ – specifically in how it spills over into what should be her ‘me’ time.

“It doesn’t impact the quality of client work, but it does impact my social life. I’ll work longer hours. I’ll say no to doing something outside of work so that I can get in a few extra hours on what needs to get done for the business,” she says. “I really don’t want to just be pushing out work and not building the business – I need to do both.”

So what’s the solution for time-poor owners who have to juggle multiple tasks but still need to be highly productive in their day-to-day? A time management expert has some answers for us.

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Small Business Help Desk: Tips from an expert

Kate Christie is a time management expert and the best-selling author of The Life List and SMART Time Investment for Business. Her goal is to help businesses and their people wrestle back hours of time every week, and feel more productive as a result.

“As a small business owner, particularly if you’re starting out, you do need to wear all the hats unless you’ve got a big bankroll behind you,” she says. “It’s a good thing because it makes you understand all the moving parts of the business. But what I would be focusing more time on would be the high-value tasks.

“These are the tasks that are revenue generating. Once you have that up and running, and you’ve got consistent revenue, you can start to work out which of those hats you can outsource.”

That’s the position Griffiths finds herself in: she has a strong, growing business that is bringing in consistent revenue, but still she finds it difficult to outsource certain tasks – whether due to poor experiences with contractors in the past, or a feeling that delegation may ultimately result in more work on her end, such as needing to fix their mistakes.

Christie says this is completely natural for many business owners, especially those who started running things solo and already know how to do all the essential tasks the correct way. But in order to be a successful and productive leader, you need to master the art of delegation.

“The best way to delegate is to identify tasks that are lower value for you,” she says. “For example, you may not be an expert in them, or they may not be revenue generating. Work those out and make sure you hire people who have the expertise in those areas.”

Productivity and time management expert Kate Christie. Image: Supplied.

Strategies for dealing with burnout and overwhelm

In addition to effectively delegating lower-value tasks, Christie has a few other pieces of advice that can help Griffiths and other small business owners in the same situation:

• Look after your health and wellbeing: “If you are burnt out or feel overwhelmed, you’re of no use to your business and you’re actually going to cost the business. So a high-value task needs to be proper rest and recovery.”
• Plan properly: “Build a really great plan for the business. Break it down into what your goals are for the quarter, the month and the week.”
• Control the agenda: “Work out what’s within your remit and start exercising full control over that.”
• Focus on the right tasks at the right time: “Do your high-value tasks when your brain is fully switched on, and your lower-value tasks when you have less energy.”

Ultimately, Christie says, if you can plan, control and focus then it’s going to help you beat that sense of ‘overwhelm’.

What do you do to reduce the overwhelm in your business? Share below in the comments.

Want more of your small business questions answered? Head to our Small Business Help Desk page for more helpful articles and videos:

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with NRMA Small Business Insurance.