Hi, Sandy,

Finding encouragement in the work we complete is one of the most important aspects of working independently. Too many times, I get lost in the fray without reaching out to someone for that positive word. Your note is a good reminder to enjoy this journey.

Thanks for participating.
— Mialei

Hi, Steve,

I have a couple of projects in Asana. Typing does not force me to think in a way that organizes my actions. I am still not sure why putting pen to paper has such a calming effect on the wild and crazy ride this business can be.

Thank you for your comment.
— Mialei

Hi, Una,

I finally figured out that too much of my “overwhelm” is the spin in my own mind. Some days, I spend more time struggling against the noise in my mind just to define the tasks to complete.

Thank you for visiting.
— Mialei

To your success
Zora Blume

I do use a free task management tool online called Asana and this helps me out tremendously especially when I am working on something with someone. Might be something you would consider checking out (even though you’re a fan of a pad and pen – me too by the way).

Outsourcing is also something that I’ve done a lot more lately, simply because I have a lot of tasks that collectively would take up a lot of my time and detract my attention from the core items that need to be done each day and usually these little things get pushed further and further back but even though they aren’t a priority, they still need doing. I’ve found some great people for this on a place called People Per Hour, a freelancing website.

Great post Mialei.

Overwhelm is a big problem for a lot of creative types too – often because they’re not sure which idea to pursue next, they’ve so many! LOL

They’re not always so good at getting into the detail of what’s required before jumping in head first. I used to do that all the time before I realised how it wasn’t serving me.

A great tip I use and teach my clients, is to batch tasks into groups depending on kind of energy they require. So the energy to check how you’re doing on your business measures is quite different to what you would need to have a productive brainstorming session for instance.

This really increases productivity. You can read about it in my 15 Terrific Tips blog post linked to below. Hey there’s also a link to a video I made on 1 simple trick to save hours every week.

Hi, Joy,

Part of that programming background was learning how long to struggle on a problem before asking for help. Those nudges from teammates were excellent training for working through obstacles while we learned. All of those languages you mentioned were the same ones we used to program what we thought were powerful computers.

Thanks for the comment.
— Mialei

My languages were Fortran, Algol, BASIC, COBOL and Sculptor (currently). What were yours?

Anyway – back to topic….

However much I try and plan my work ahead I always seem to get knocked off course by other people’s requirements. But as I get paid fairly well to fire-fight, perhaps that IS my work. Just makes it very difficult to have any structure.

For instance I had a definite job I wanted to do today, then paying client needed support – so down tools. Never mind, there’s always tomorrow 🙂

My son taught me the art of Googling for a video (or forum) to tell me how to do things when I get stuck. It’s solved me all sorts of obscure problems for me. Sounds obvious now LOL, but I’m glad you made the point for others like me who maybe wouldn’t have thought of it.

Have a great week, Joy