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Preventing Consultant’s “Overwhelm”

Preventing Consultant’s “Overwhelm”

Some consultants I coach and mentor (and many I observe) become “overwhelmed.” The are figuratively (or literally?) overcome by being overcome. The don’t know where to start to begin the journey out.

Here are some tips:

• Stop putting things off and procrastinating. Choose two or three times a day to clear your email, and get rid of it. Respond or file  or delete. But get it off your system. Don’t plan to “get to it later.”

• Stop helping people for free. Help people who pay you to help them. If you want to do pro bono work, do it for a charity you believe in once a month. If you don’t value your help, no one else will, and more people will keep asking you for free advice.

• Minimize social media time. It’s not marketing to the corporate market, and it’s not important for your personal development. If it’s recreationally important, allot  30 minutes a day for it.

• Reconcile your financial needs. Money concerns completely undermine the ability to be confident, make decisions, and take risks. Get a loan, reduce expenses, pursue more business. But stop worrying about money or nothing will work for you. Use credit, that’s what it’s for. Who’s a better risk than you?

• Drop leeches and energy suckers, and focus on positive family, friends, and colleagues. Don’t allow others to add to your sense of overwhelm. There are people who do nothing but, and they are inferiors crying in the night rather than trying to get better during the day.

• Organize yourself. Clean up your office and your calendar. Find a device (I recommend physical aids such as Filofax) to order your universe and control your time. Plan what you have to do and work backwards in small chunks, e.g., from a workshop to its design and its materials, or an article to three periods of writing.

• Ask for help. Talk to people you trust, tell them honestly where you are and listen to their advice.

You don’t want to be hurled away by the gale. You want to lean into the wind.

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.

Written by

Alan Weiss is a consultant, speaker, and author of over 60 books. His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients from over 500 leading organizations around the world.

Comments: 12

  • J. Scott Shipman

    March 15, 2011

    Alan, Many thanks! Scott

  • David Zinger

    March 15, 2011

    Alan:

    Thanks for the post. I always remember your other tip to keep conversations going…repeat back the last two works with a questioning tone, as in, “the wind?”

    Take care and carry on.

    David

  • joe

    March 15, 2011

    Good advice.

  • Gareth Kane

    March 15, 2011

    Agree with this. When I feel up against it I try to remember to ask myself – what 3 simple tasks must I complete today. The focus is key.

    Having said that, I really must tidy my office. It’s a disgrace.

  • Mark F. Weiss

    March 18, 2011

    I especially appreciate your tip to stop helping people for free.

    I write a lot of articles and regularly receive “thank you” emails from readers that include requests for detailed analysis and response, often couched as “quick questions.”

    Intellectually, I know that providing value via an article is not an invitation to provide more value for free, but at the same time I have to admit that I’ve been sucked into giving at least some more, more than once.

    Thanks to your post, I deflected two such requests this morning! Now that’s value!

    Mark

  • Alan Weiss

    March 19, 2011

    It’s really not so hard, is it?!

  • Alan Weiss

    March 19, 2011

    It’s not so hard, is it?!

  • Rabbi Issamar Ginzberg

    March 19, 2011

    advice so well said.

    Bookmark and read once a week (in the time you used to spend on social media!)

  • Philippe Back

    March 28, 2011

    Can’t agree more.
    Focus is our best friend.
    Do as Alan says. I do, as much as I can:

    http://philippeback.be/2011/03/focus-the-ultimate-power/

  • Bill Jawitz

    March 29, 2011

    This is such an important topic because so many do not know “how” or “when” to stop and get focused before overwhelm sets in.

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