So Many Ideas, So Little Time!… How To Crush Marketing Overwhelm

If you’re in the world of Marketing, and you ever find yourself feeling overwhelmed and a bit stressed out, I’m totally with you.

It’s something I like to call ‘crazy brain’.

Because literally, you feel like you’re going crazy sometimes — but not in a bad way.

Let me stress that: Not in a bad way.

At times it’s like there’s a zillion voices in your head, cheering with excitement about all of the fun ideas and things you have to implement — but where the do you start?!

You can work on Social Media calendars, scheduling, email marketing, landing pages, paid traffic, writing kick-ass blog posts, Facebook ads, chopping up content, filming, video editing, webinars, community management, graphic design, hosting a podcast…

…OH MY DAYS.

See why I call it ‘crazy brain’?

When you’re faced with all of these options for taking your business, (or the business you work for), on a rocket to the moon — where do you begin?

What do you focus your energy on first thing in the morning, in the middle of the day, and in the evening?

Because EVERYTHING is 100% important, but the trouble is right now, all of those tactics look like the world’s tallest skyscraper…

…And reaching the top looks damn impossible.

Or at least it did before you laid your eyes on this blog post ;-)

With that said I’m going to share with you my favorite hack for making what feels insane and crazy — doable, so you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing you’re not alone, this sense of overwhelm will say hello sometimes, and it’s totally ok… (It really just means you’re a bad-ass who CARES, if you weren’t overwhelmed, I’d be worried!).

Got a pen and paper ready? Let’s go!

So, what’s the secret to becoming a productive team player and unlocking a more productive life?

‘To-do lists’.

But not just a ‘to-do’ list with 10, or 20 things scribbled down — a ‘to-do’ list done right.

If you’re already in the habit of jotting your daily to-do’s down, nice work — you’re on the right track. You might just need to switch a few things around to get you rocking productivity like a pro.

You see, the way that a lot of people write to-do lists (my past self included) is by penciling down tasks with no thought. They begin with the low maintenance tasks, saving the more ‘daunting’ ones for last.

Why is this? There’s two reasons:

1. Wanting to cross items off the list AS SOON AS POSSIBLE because it makes us feel good — thank you Dopamine!
2. Because we think that getting the ‘quicker’ jobs done first will allow us to crack on with the longer jobs after — mistake!

According to an article by Timothy Psychyl in Psychology Today, putting off tough items and saving them for last increases the amount of negative feelings we experience later on.

So how do you combat this?

Instead of writing down allllllll my tasks in no particular order I think of it like this: What’s the no.1 goal I need to achieve today to serve people and help this business grow?

Once I’m clear on that, I write it at the top of my list and then break it down into actionable steps.

Here’s an example:

• Write Wednesday’s blog post
  - Open a document and get typing with no editing along the way
  - Read over and edit
  - Create visuals for blog post
  - Create quick video for blog post
  - Re-read and edit
  - Publish
  - Post out on Social Media
  - Schedule out across Social Media for MONTHS!
  - Drop it in an email

Sometimes when we write down our to-do lists there can be a hell of a lot on there which isn’t always humanly possible to achieve in the space of one day.

Having the most important tasks right at the TOP (the ones that if they weren’t done today, would affect others and the business) allows us to get stuff done, and not worry if the tasks right at the bottom don’t get ticked off, because they can be done in the morning anyway!

Taking the extra minute on a morning, or even planning out your day the night before, could help not only boost your productivity, but also say goodbye to that anxious feeling you get when you procrastinate because your brain is feeling a bit ‘wild’.

How do you prfioritize your tasks? Drop me your comments below!

***Something to think about. Do you find yourself feeling this way often? What do you do when you begin to feel this way? I’d LOVE to know!***

Tweet me @amytitch or comment below — let’s share how we crush Marketing overwhelm together ;-)

Seriously, TWEET ME, or I’ll be sad — thanks for staying with me on this post.

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