Overwhelm

by | Jan 7, 2021

Nobody likes overwhelm. If, like me, you’re an entrepreneur, getting into a state of overwhelm can be particularly challenging.

As someone who’s sensitive at the best of times, overwhelm really gets to me. I start thinking about everything I need to get done. Too much to do and too little time. It leads to confusion and procrastination.

I’ve felt it a lot this week.

My business still depends too much on me. I’ve tried various strategies to deal with this in the past and been burned every time. Either by putting my trust in people who didn’t care about my business as much as I did; or by expecting too much from the people I was delegating to; or by just not being clear enough with the responsibilities I was delegating and subsequently not managing everything well enough.

In general, I’m feeling that I’m getting closer to a solution to my overwhelm. But last night I had a temporary blip when I realised I hadn’t dealt with all my “important and urgent” tasks.

One of which was to send something to my email list.

At that point, my commitment to send emails to my audience on a more regular basis felt like the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

I reached the point where, just for an hour or so, it felt like my head was exploding.

Luckily, I know that when I feel overwhelmed, it’s not the real me. It’s just the negative voice in my head, trying to get me to live in the future, diverting my energy and focus from the present moment, causing me to procrastinate.

So I followed my tried and tested approach to dealing with overwhelm – I did nothing for a while. The Dalai Lama’s approach is to meditate even more on busy days, and I’ve taken a leaf out of his book. It’s often worked wonders for me. The more I slow down, the more I achieve.

I woke this morning with a lot more clarity and the inspiration to write this blog all about overwhelm.

OK, How Does This Relate To Deliverability?

Well, there are a few ways…

Firstly, the whole issue of deliverability can be massively overwhelming.

“Where do I start? What do I do?” are the most common questions I get asked.

Although email deliverability can be like a massively complex jigsaw, the good news is there’s always some low hanging fruit to be found.

Just a few tweaks to your content, a couple of one-time pieces of techy set-up and one change to your sending practices are enough to make a big difference.

Here are my top three recommendations:

  1. Set up your authentication
  2. Only send emails to your most engaged contacts
  3. Tweak your content: make sure your email looks like it was sent from your personal mailbox. It should have as few images and links as possible, it should sound like you and be easy to read. 

Secondly, it’s vital that you keep in touch with your audience regularly.

“How can I come up with enough content to send something at least once a week?” is another common question I hear.

It doesn’t have to be that difficult. All you need to do is plan ahead. Brainstorm a list of topics that you can write about, and create blog posts in advance. Then send one email out per week (more often if you can create more content) with a short “teaser” paragraph or two encouraging people to click through and read the entire article.

Did You Already Download My Checklist?

Finally, if you’ve not already downloaded your copy, make sure you check out The RACE Method Checklist, my simple guide that covers the tips I’ve included here and shares the other important steps you should take to Avoid the Spam Folder and Double Your Open Rates.