Managing the overwhelm
You’re in survival mode. Things are changing constantly - your work, your home life, your routines, your social life (or lack thereof). And all of it is impacting you both personally and professionally. So how do you manage the overwhelm, gain perspective and get some control back into your daily life?
For many creatives out there - from start up and stand alone creatives to medium and large scale studios - the overwhelm right now is palpable. Some of you are surviving one day at a time, while others can’t see more than a month or two ahead for their business. Not to mention the responsibility of having your own staff and finding more work to keep them employed, too. Some of you may have no work at all and you’re trying to navigate the assistance packages from the government. There’s no doubt it is a very stressful time.
Most people I have been talking with have been struggling mostly with the unpredictability. But there’s also this feeling of being ‘constantly on’ and never having enough time in the day to supervise teams, liaise with clients and customers from afar - all while trying to manage their own workloads. Oh, and have some downtime too (which is pretty much non existent).
Being a small business and in a similar situation to many of you, we have been working our way through some podcasts this week to help us get out of the survival fog. It’s been a great way to reset our intentions and get back into managing what we can in the now, rather than feeling stuck. We’re sharing three of our favourites so you can:
understand what you’re feeling is normal
start to notice patterns when you’re dealing with uncertainty
work through ways to feel more in control of your day
lead teams virtually, in a way that is both balanced and accountable
Regain control in an unpredictable world
Do you want to find ways to get unstuck mentally and through your behaviours? This podcast episode covers:
Ways to step out of the story you’re telling yourself
How you can process, problem solve and move forward
Ways to not get stuck inside our heads
Regain a sense of predictability
Create small pockets of predictability: sleep, diet and exercise
Refill your bucket
Connect with routine and establish structure
Create small habits that relate to your values
Reset and reconnect with yourself
How to balance care
and accountability when
leading virtually
How to balance performance while caring for people well. This podcast episode covers:
How to invest in this moment, even though it’s not comfortable
How to have challenging conversations as a leader
Ways to manage performance while still being kind yet direct
Guiding an accountability conversation - Mention, Invitation, Conversation, Boundary, Limit
Tapping into your intuition more when you’re working remotely
Small things that can decrease the cycle time between interactions
The importance of deepening moral by balancing positive reinforcements with keeping people accountable
Anxiety, calm and
Over / Under Functioning
How do you show up in anxiety and move through it? This podcast episode covers:
How anxiety is highly contagious and can spread like wildfire through a team
Patterned ways of dealing with anxiety - over functioning and under functioning
Forms of armour for getting us out from under fear and uncertainty
Over functioning: Doing instead of feeling
Under functioning: I won’t function, I’ll fall apart
Developing a calm practice to bring perspective to complicated situations
How to be slow to respond, yet quick to think “Do I have all the information I need to make a decision or form a response?”
How a panicked response can produce more panic and more fear for those around you
Note: listen from 5 mins to jump straight to the content