WORKWEEK

How to keep a level head and weather the storm when shit hits the fan

Ok. Prioritization. Let’s chat about this.

You’re overwhelmed. You’ve got 47 deadlines approaching yesterday. What do you do?

Thought 1) Let some stuff break.

You’re not going to get everything done. Some of the stuff you do get done is not going to be perfect.

Oh well. Shrug your shoulders. Get over it (respectfully).

You need to be okay with a lack of perfection when you’re under deadline duress.

For example, right now I have to:

• Write this newsletter
• Finish content for 4 clients to end the week
• Prep for and take calls with 2 clients and 2 prospects today
• Post my own content on Twitter and LinkedIn

Hate to break it to myself, but that personal content probably ain’t getting posted. And I’m probably not spending 2 hours research for this newsletter you’re reading right now.

It’s fine. Some days (or several-day stretches) are like this. I share this with you to help you understand that your problem of feeling behind or overwhelmed is not unique to you.

Your team feels it. Your boss feels it. Your clients feel it. Everyone does from time to time. And that should be comforting.

Now that we’re clear on that…

Thought 2) Identify the highest priority and highest leverage content that you need to produce

Is there any content that needs to get done? For example, if you have an influencer activation coming up that you need to submit for approval — that would take priority over a one-off meme that you were thinking about.

Is there a certain type of content that usually leads to outsized results? When you have limited time, you don’t want to spend hours on content that is not going to perform. Now is not the time to experiment. Now is the time to fall back on what you know works.

For example, if you’re on Twitter and you know that threads pop off for your brand… spend the next hour cranking out a thread and not on some experimental idea that you have no previous data on. Also don’t spend time doing busy work like replying to comments and DMs when you’re in a time crunch (unless there is some sort of deadline related to this).

Identify tasks that are high priority and high leverage.

Get the urgent content and calls done that have to go out today. Everything else can wait. For now.

Once you have these identified.

Pick the 1 — not 2 or 3… 1 — that requires immediate attention. Execute.

Get it done. Rotate to the next. Wash rinse and repeat until you have methodically worked your way through your priority task list for the day.

Thought 3) Set time constraints for content creation

This piece is so important.

It’s easy to spend hours on 1 piece of content. You analyze every day. Tweak until it’s perfect in your creative eye.

This is great — just not when deadlines are staring you in the face.

You need constraints to drive speed here.

For example, I’m giving myself 20 minuets to write this newsletter before I need to move on to a piece of client content and some calls.

Could I spend the next 3 hours refining and editing? Sure.

Do I have that luxury right now? Nope.

Set a hard time limit. Put your noise-cancelling headphones on. Start blasting house music. Get to work.

This is the formula. Prioritize and execute. One thing at a time.

The hardest part about this for you will be the mental aspect I touched on earlier. You’re going to want to beat yourself up if a piece of content isn’t perfect or if you miss that one idea you had in your content calendar.

Be aware of this tendency. And get on with the work you need to do.

Not every day will be like this (hopefully), so you’ll have time to be more creative tomorrow, or next week.

Hope this quick passage helped you. That’s all I’ve got today.