This is an interview with Denise Eckert. A certified life coach at no therapist. Her unique program includes a group of health professionals with different modalities and satisfying experience in creating a balanced lifestyle. 

Denise said that we tend to spend a lot of time working. And that is also because we’re wearing different hats, which means working all sorts of things from social media to accounting. It is an act of putting too much on our plate. She went through this in the past without knowing why and what is going on. Feeling exhausted all the time, but when she got into coaching, that’s when she found enlightenment. And now, she helps entrepreneurs not to go into overwhelming stress and burn it in the end. 

Sometimes we get too overwhelmed because of our mentality or mindset that it’s hard to do things. Entrepreneurs need to have a guilt-free day once in a while. You go for a walk and put things behind instead of putting too much on your to-do list. It is not a good habit to put pressure on oneself, thinking that success will likely fail if we don’t work hard. This is a preventive situation. If you take that time to give yourself a chance to rejuvenate, your productivity goes up. Unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs don’t think like that.

One of the important tips to reduce that stress and overwhelm is brain dumping. Denise explained that when you start feeling flustered, frustrated, or irritable, the better thing to do is step away. Whether you do a meditation or a tapping episode, sit in silence or go for a quick walk as long as it means disconnecting yourself from it. And once you’ve stepped away, put everything on the table – brain dump and take a real look at what you need to do. Don’t get stuck and see from there if things are aligning. Refrain from doing the stuff that is not fitted to yourself or your business. 

She is fond of using a pen and paper when she makes a brain dump list. She can scratch it out and get a sense of responsibility for it when she writes things down. Dealing with new software means copy-pasting and moving stuff around or making revisions. The brain dump’s essential thing is not to make revisions but merely get the thought out there.

She also mentioned chunking things down—the sense of learning to delegate the responsibilities if it takes too much of your time. You can go online and outsource, but then if the money is tight, there are different ways to do things. Just like barter, a favour or advantage granted or expected in return for something. Focus on the things that work for you.

The cycle of chunking down is simple. If you’ve got a big project, put it into steps. Reward yourself each time you accomplish one. It doesn’t have to be complicated because the reward can also mean making yourself a nice lunch or pouring yourself a lovely tea and sitting outside to get that break. You’ll have that feeling of accomplishment, then next is the time to reward yourself, get some space for yourself away from your work and rejuvenate. So that when you proceed to another step or chunk of work, you won’t feel stressed out. And then, do it again.

Lastly, it doesn’t have to be extreme to take a break if you need that time off. A couple of hours or taking a day off will do good for you mentally.