Task Overload? Here's How to Manage Like a Pro

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

Ever feel like your to-do list is never-ending? You’re not alone! We’re diving into the reality of task overload. If you’ve ever missed a deadline, felt constant stress, or found your focus scattered, this one’s for you.

Imagine turning your chaotic desk into a well-organized workspace where everything has its place. That’s what streamlined task management workflows are all about and what we’re covering in this episode to help you finally get a grip on that overwhelming list. Let’s dive in and start managing tasks like a pro!

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Learn more about the Systems Savvy Society

▶ Efficiency Self-Assessment Toolkit

▶ Check out Getting Started with Trello

▶ Episode 28: Tools to Automate Your Online Business: I Use These Daily

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Watch on YouTube:

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Intro

Ever feel like your to-do list is never ending? You’re not alone. We are diving into the reality of task overload. So, if you’ve ever missed a deadline, felt constant stress or found your focus to be scattered, then this one’s for you. Imagine turning your chaotic desk into a well-organized workspace where everything has its place.

That’s where streamlined task management workflows are all about and what we’re covering in this episode to help you finally get a grip on that overwhelming list. So let’s go ahead and dive in and start managing your tasks like a pro.

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs that like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelmed goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine. So let’s get started.

Hey, Hey. Welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast. I’m really excited about this episode because it’s honestly one of my favorite topics. I love talking about task management workflows because they have truly, truly changed the game for me.

They have changed the way that I manage my entire business, the way I manage my entire tasks. And I’m going to share how I’m doing that with you in today’s episode.

The Reality of Task Overload

But first let’s actually talk about this reality of task overload and how many entrepreneurs are actually in this, in this place, because I know that you’ve heard it. I know that you feel it. You feel like there’s so many tasks and that list is never ending. And truly, that is how my list is too.

And it’s, it’s actually never ending. Like, it will never end because we’re entrepreneurs. That is why we’re entrepreneurs. We have so many ideas. And so our list truly does become a never ending, but it doesn’t mean that you have to get it all done. And it doesn’t mean that it has to be hard to get the ones that you do want to get done, to get done.

And so one, some signs of you actually trying to fit too much onto your plate are what I had mentioned earlier, which is missing your deadlines. If you’re missing deadlines constantly, you’re not able to keep up. Then you’re assigning too much for yourself to get done.

If you’re always feeling stressed or overwhelmed, that’s another side that you are truly in this state of task overload. You are overwhelming yourself with stuff that you can’t actually get done.

Like when you look at how many hours you have in a day, when you look at how long it’s taking you to complete certain tasks, It’s not totaling up to where you can get the stuff done realistically, without feeling stressed or overwhelmed. If you’re also feeling like you have scattered focus, so you’re constantly distracted by stuff.

If you’re constantly getting pulled away, if you find yourself scrolling on social media when you’re supposed to be working, there’s something off there too. It could be because your brain is already tired. Your brain’s already fried and it’s just wanting to like, get pulled away intentionally.

Or maybe you lose focus because you’re unintentionally being taken away by your partner or your kids or your pet or your health issues or whatever the case is. And in that case, well, you still need to reduce the amount of tasks that you have going on because you need to be aware that you are going to get pulled away and that’s something that maybe cannot be changed, which means you cannot try to force yourself to get tasks done when the reality is you cannot.

And so that’s kind of like the reality here that we live in as entrepreneurs. We’re really trying to get so much done because we feel like that the more that we get done, the more our business is going to grow. And that’s just not the case. You have to work on the right tasks and you don’t have to do more to make more.

You don’t have to do more to make more. I like that. Quote, I’m making that into a quote. You don’t have to do more than make more. Okay. I really want that to sink in. And actually I did a little bit of research before recording this episode.

And there was some statistics that I found from this Hubstaff article that said 80% of people do not feel that their work is under control each day. That is a lot of people. I was mind blown when I saw that stat, like that is truly a lot of people. 80% feel overwhelmed with their tasks. So, like I said, you’re definitely not alone.

And then the next stat that I saw was people spend 51% of their average Workday on low value tasks. Okay. That’s barely over half, but it’s still over half. So had just how I said, you don’t have to do more to make more. That is where this comes in. Like, just because you’re doing more, if they’re low value tasks, are you truly going to make more? No. That’s not how it works.

So even I, myself, I do find myself where I’m like, Trying to do all of these different tasks and I have to stop and think, okay. This wasn’t on my plan. Is this really going to move the needle on my business?

Is this really going to make a difference in what I’m trying to achieve? If the answer is no. I stop doing it. I put it to the side. I put in another Trello board. I assign it to someone else. I don’t do it. If the answer is yes, then I’m like, okay, well then let’s actually get my system created for it because let me do it faster.

That is the whole point of task management systems. So you can overcome this task overload with streamlined task management workflows, but it doesn’t mean that you have to add everything on your to-do list into these workflows. Okay. That is not what it means.

What Are Streamlined Task Management Workflows?

But before we move forward, in case you don’t know what task management workflows even are, let me just briefly explain what they are, because these are truly the game changers of your business.

This is the foundation that’s going to help you get the things done in your business without feeling overwhelmed, without feeling stressed. That’s going to save you time, help you stay focused.

All of those things that you are feeling the complete opposite for, of, these are going to change that. So specifically streamlined task management workflows are efficient, organized processes that simplify and speed up how you handle tasks, making it easier to stay on top of your work without feeling overwhelmed. I love that definition.

That is like the best way to explain what these are, because it really is like turning your entire digital workspace into something where everything has its place. You know exactly where everything is. You know the exact order that you need to complete things on.

Benefits of Using Task Management Workflows

If you’re a multi-passionate and you have a squirrel brain, where you’re trying to do so many different things at once, or maybe you’re someone who can’t really function where, or it can’t really work in the way where you have to complete something from a to Z before moving onto the next step with before moving onto the next thing, like, hello, that’s me.

And that’s why I use Trello because it really does help me work on multiple projects at once, Which satisfies how my brain works and how I want to get things done without making me lose track of where I was, without making me forget where I placed or store certain things.

It makes it so easy to work on multiple things at once, whenever I want and still know exactly where to pick back up where I left off. So that is the beauty of having these streamlined task management systems. They really do help reduce your chaos and your confusion. It helps you prioritize your task.

So just like I mentioned before, Sometimes I’ll find myself in that situation where I don’t know what I need to get done or when, and I have to decide, is this a priority for me?

And usually one of the questions that helps me determine if it’s a priority is, is this going to move the needle? Is this going to make a difference in what I’m trying to achieve? And that question in itself helps me decide whether that task is a priority or not.

So other ways that this helps you is it really Helps you make your scheduling more efficient. So your scheduling that’s has to actually go into one, help you move the needle, right? Because you’re prioritizing the tasks and then we’re going to help you get the tasks on faster.

And it just really helps you achieve more in less time which gives you more time freedom to do whatever you want. Whether that’s the work more, whether that’s a spend more time with your family, whether that’s more time to relax or sleep, whatever the case is. You know how you would spend your time. We talked about it in the last episode and these task management workflows really help make that happen.

Tools For Easier Task Management

All right. So now let’s move on to the tools that can make this happen for you, Because there are certain tools that are going to make it easier for you to manage these tasks and management workflows.

Project Management Tools

And the first one is project management tools like the first one are project management tools, and I personally love and use Trello. There’s also Asana, Clickup, all these other ones, which is fine. It depends on how you work, how your brain works, how you want to get things done.

For me personally, I have found Trello to be the one that I use to manage my entire business. It’s the one that I’ve used to work with my team. It’s the one I’ve been using for several years.

So it is absolutely great even as you start to grow your business, you can still get your stuff done inside of Trello. And so I use that. But any project management tool is really going to serve as like this project command center where it’s going to help you keep all your tasks organized.

It helps you set these deadlines. It helps you create checklists and labels and helps you visually see what needs to be done and when, and keeping track of the progress and who it’s with.

Project management tools are really game changers because they are like having personal assistants so I don’t forget anything which is a super, super bonus.

So if you are interested in learning more about how to use Trello, if you’re like, yeah, I want to give Trello a try, then I have a mini course, Getting Started with Trello, which is also inside of the Systems Savvy Society, or you can grab it separately. I will link to it in the show notes so you can check that out.

Time Tracking Apps

The next type of tool on the list are time tracking apps. So we’ve talked about time tracking a little bit, but there’s specific apps that make it easier. So yes, you can time track on paper. Yes. You can time track on a spreadsheet.

But honestly, for me personally, I would prefer it to be an app where again, it’s so much easier for you to search and find and see, on the digital space how long certain things are taking you, because if you feel like you don’t know where time flew, where time has gone, then these apps make it super easy for you to find out without having to search through so many papers or so many spreadsheets to figure out how long it’s been taking you to get some tasks done.

So they really help you provide insights on how, how your time is spent and doing what. To help you identify those areas of improvements. there are time tracking apps like Toggl, it’s a website where you can go and start tracking your tasks.

But if you use something like Trello, there are actually Trello power-up apps that you can use to help you track specific cards, to see how they take you.

So this is all something that I show you inside of the Systems Savvy Society, inside of the Toolkit. So I will link to that in the show notes as well. You can either grab the Efficiency Self-Assessment Toolkit separately, or you get it as a member of the Systems Savvy Society. And we dive deeper into how to really track your time using these apps to help you find those areas of improvement.

Automation Tools

Now the third tool that can really, the third type of tool that can really help you calm down that task overload and help you manage your tasks better are automation tools.

So automation tools like Zapier, Trello rules or buttons inside of your project management apps. Some of them have the capabilities, abilities to create certain automations. Or there are social media scheduling tools.

There’s so many different types of automation tools. If you’re using a checkout platform like Thrivecart, that also in itself has automations that you can build in because it can trigger an email to go out from your email service provider.

So something like Convertkit, if you’re using that, that in itself can be an automation tool because it automatically sending the emails to, you know, your new subscribers or your new buyers without you having to manually do it.

So you might have already gotten started with automation without even realizing that it’s automating. And that’s great, but you can take it up another notch by automating even more repetitive tasks and freeing up your time for more creative work.

So if you haven’t listened to episode 28, where talk about the different automation tools I use in my business, definitely go and check that out. You can do some automation in other ways that make this task overload so much easier. So for example, you can integrate platforms from like Zapier to something else to trigger certain events to happen.

So you can set up an automation. For example, in my case, I have an automation set up where, when someone joins the System Savvy Society through Thrivecart, it triggers an automation to Convertkit to send them their welcome email.

It also triggers a Zapier to invite them to join my heartbeat community, which is where I have the System Savvy Society housed. Within Heartbeat, I have automations set up to where they get access to certain resources and courses as a System Savvy Society member.

These are different ways to automate tasks that I don’t have to do it myself. I don’t have to manually add people into Heartbeat when they buy through Thrivecart because those are two different platforms.

You can use a tool like Zapier, which is specifically an automation tool that helps you integrate multiple platforms. And there’s so many other examples.

There’s the example of using Shopify and Thrivecart Learn. That’s another big one that I see a lot. if you’re using Shopify, but you grabbed that Thrivecart limited time, lifetime deal, then you can still integrate them both through using something like Zapier to help connect and deliver those courses that you have hosted elsewhere.

So there’s so many different ways that you can eliminate the tasks and take them off your plate through using specific automation tools like Zapier. But also like we’ve talked about in the past, you can even set up automations within your own project management tools.

In Trello, I use so many automations to specifically remove labels or add labels or assign to a team member, or to add me as a member to add a due date, to remind me to get a task done or whatever.

Like there’s so many different automations, little tiny automations that you can create that help clear up my brain space. So that way I can focus on other tasks that are really going to move the needle on my business. So automation is the third thing.

Episode Wrap-Up

So what we’ve covered to help you manage your tasks like a pro, and really start to get rid of that task overload that you have is to one, create streamlined task management workflows, and two, to create them using the help of certain tools like project management And automation tools to make those tasks easier and to get as much off as your plate as possible without even having to delegate to a team member.

I know that some people might not be in the place where they either want to hire a team member or can hire a team member. Well, automation is going to be then the first best step before you even get to that place, because it’s typically a tool and it’s typically a VA who doesn’t sleep and just does all this stuff for you because you’ve already set it up once.

So that’s what I recommend that you do in order to help you manage your tasks. If you are ready to take control of your task management and you need help, you don’t know where to start, then I really invite you to join the Systems Savvy Society.

This is where we’re talking all about task management workflows. I’m helping you get your systems set up. You can come and join the systems implementation calls where you can get actual feedback. You’ll get my eyes on your system to give you some input, to give you some ideas on how you can streamline it even more, how you can automate things even more.

And there are so many, so much support available inside. So If you really want support on helping on getting your task management systems done, then check out the Systems Savvy Society at cheerstoproductivity.com/sss. The link will be in the show notes, and I will talk to you next time.

Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today’s episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/74. And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening so you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!