5 Quick-Fire Tips For Removing More Day-To-Day Stress From Your Business

Let’s be real for a minute: as awesome as it is to be the boss of your own business, there’s no denying things can get pretty stressful. After all, the responsibility for making money ultimately falls on you — and if you’re a solopreneur, you don’t have an in-house team that you can give some of the work to!

The daily stresses of running a business can wear down even the most enthusiastic of freelancers and solopreneurs. Let that day-to-day stress run rampant for too long, and burnout is going to be kicking down your door before you know it.

Obviously, no one should get to that point. Fortunately, lightening your burden and reducing your daily stress may be easier than you think.

1. Identify What Freaks You Out

Just like in the rest of your life, you need to start by identifying what things about your work stress you out. This can be hard to do as an entrepreneur, since you have so many different tasks and responsibilities you might be juggling at the same time.

Take a step back and look at how you feel when working on different activities. Keep in mind that stress often comes from things you are having trouble figuring out, or haven’t gotten around to yet. Figuring out exactly what is causing you the most stress is the first step in making an action plan to address it.

2. Create A Consistent Schedule

Young children thrive on structure. Anyone who has ever dealt with a screaming toddler who is upset because they missed their nap knows what I mean. The thing is, we’re really not all that different as adults. A consistent work schedule — a consistent structure for how we handle our day — gives us confidence and a sense of control over what the day has in store.

A consistent schedule helps you make specific plans for accomplishing important tasks without feeling overwhelmed. I know a lot of entrepreneurs who feel at their most alert in the morning, so they set that time aside for their most important or demanding tasks. Less intensive responsibilities, like answering emails or filling out paperwork, come later when mental energy goes down.

Of course, your own schedule might be the opposite! Find what works for you and stick to it.

3. Find Ways To Outsource Or Automate

As Jonas Williams, senior spokesperson at PayStubs.net explained to me in a recent phone conversation, “Every business owner has tasks that they’d rather not do. From paystub generation to filling out order details, there are many tasks that are either time-consuming, repetitive, overly complex to someone who isn’t trained in that area or all of those things. The internet and cloud technology have made life easier for entrepreneurs by making outsourcing and automation of these types of tasks that much more accessible.”

Automation and outsourcing don’t just free up some of your time. If you’re outsourcing something you’re not particularly good at to an expert, you’ll probably get better results than if you did it on your own. If you turn over number-crunching to an automation tool, you can avoid costly mistakes from human error. Talk about a stress-reliever!

4. Focus On One Thing At A Time

Feeling like you have a million things you need to get done is a surefire way to get stressed out. Trying to work a little bit on every project isn’t necessarily going to help, either, since you’ll still have looming deadlines for each of those tasks lurking over your shoulder.

Instead, I’ve found that whenever possible, focusing on one activity at a time is the best way to do things. It can help to start with the smallest task on your to-do list. Simply getting to cross off a task as “done” can lighten the mental load and leave you feeling better for the next item on your list.

Besides, we’re not really meant to multi-task anyway. Focus on one thing at a time, and you’ll deliver better results for your clients, too.

5. Practice Self-Care

Yeah, we’ve all read those articles with entrepreneurs claiming they bust their butts working 100- hour weeks — and that they like it, too. While this may be possible for some super-humans, the average person simply isn’t built for that.

You have to take time out for self-care. It really doesn’t matter WHAT self-care is — though sleeping and eating healthy should be on everyone’s list. Meditation and yoga are obviously popular picks because they promote mindfulness and stress relief by their very nature. But your own version of self-care could be taking your dog for a walk, playing with your kids, going to a movie or listening to an audiobook.

Find what helps you relax and feel better. Schedule it on your calendar if you have to! But by taking some time where you aren’t focused on (and worried about) your business, you can mentally reset and feel refreshed and de-stressed when you get back to work.

Breathe Deep, You’ve Got This!

We all have times when work gets extra stressful. But these moments don’t have to make you start pulling out your hair wondering why you ever thought you should be an entrepreneur in the first place. By using these tips to reduce your daily stressors, you can manage your business without feeling overwhelmed.

Remember, you’re a boss — both literally and metaphorically. You’ve got this!