MBA2280 How To Deal With Everyday Stress in Your Business

0:09Heyo, welcome to the$100 MBA show, delivering business truths every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zenhom. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company. I started with my co-founder back in 2014. And in today's episode, you'll learn how to deal with everyday stress in your business. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you strategies that has helped me keep stress at bay every day. Now, I'm not talking about dealing with a stressful situation, a big project, or challenge you're trying to solve in your business.

0:44I'm talking about the stress that you experience on a daily basis regardless of what's happening. Another way to look at it is your daily frustrations. This daily kind of stress is caused by three big reasons that we're going to tackle in today's episode. Those three reasons are overwhelm, disappointment, and fatigue. When these three things are not in check always, you're asking for trouble. You're actually asking for stress to come and take you over. Now, the problem with stress is that it affects everything, your life, your happiness, your business, your results, and it takes a toll on you.

1:19And if you put yourself in those situations over and over and over again, you're just not going to make it. Trust me, I've been there. I've burnt out. It's not a pretty sight. So we're going to prevent all that by having some solid strategies to follow to solve these three areas that cause our stress. By the end of today's episode, you'll feel more empowered and prepared knowing you have the tools to combat that daily stress that gets to you. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. This episode is sponsored by Time Doctor. Measure and improve productivity wherever your people work. We've introduced Time Doctor in our own team, and you've been following along the journey for the last few weeks.

1:57This week, a little bit later in the episode, I'll be sharing our results so far. And boy, was I surprised. I got some shockers to share with you. If you want to join in on the journey and the experiment and have you and your team become more productive, up to 30 % more productive, join Time Doctor today by starting a free trial. Unlock the power of visibility and accountability in your business. Visit the Time Doctor website at www.timedoctor.com to get started. That's timedoctor.com. They say stress is a killer, and it's so true. Not only for your physical health, but also the health of your business, the health of your relationships.

2:35the health of the enjoyment of your life. And listen, there's no such thing as a stress-free life for most people. You're going to have stressful moments. You're going to have stressful days. And that's just part of the challenge. But what I'm talking about today is that daily stress, that stress that you experience every single day. You got to curb that. You got to have techniques to make sure that doesn't creep in because that greatly affects your performance as a leader of the company. I personally have experienced this where the daily stresses of business got to me and I was just not doing well.

3:04I wasn't feeling good. I wasn't leading the team the way I should have. I was disappointing them and I was disappointing myself. Luckily, I found strategies to get me out of it and prevent stress, daily stress, from affecting me in the future. And I'm here to share them with you today. So like I mentioned, there are three areas we're gonna tackle. These three areas are the reason why we have daily stress. And the first one is overwhelm. When we feel overwhelmed, we automatically feel stressed. As soon as we start feeling like There's just too much to pay attention to, to do, to get our heads around.

3:35Our stress levels skyrocket. So your job, in my opinion, as a leader is to curb overwhelm as much as possible. Understand if you don't actively try to prevent overwhelm, it will take you over. It could be something simple like you are working on a project and then all of a sudden you see a ping from somebody asking you for something. And then maybe you're a neighbor beside you, like somebody working next to you, ask the question and then you get a Google alert. oh man, a deadline is approaching, and then your Google Calendar tells you you got a meeting in five minutes, in that moment, you're feeling an incredible amount of stress.

4:08Like, oh, what do I do first? Who do I answer? Who do I talk to? And everything seems equally important. Now, this is just a very small example of overwhelm stressing us out in our daily life. This is why I am actively trying to not get overwhelmed. I do this by really prioritizing focus, meaning when I'm working on a task, that should be the only thing that's open. I can't have other distractions. Distractions are a way for me to be interrupted, whether it's a notification or a ping or a phone call or anything else. One of the things I'll talk about a little bit later about the time doctor experiment is how productivity is related to focus.

4:46People that focus on a task, focus on a project, really get a lot done. And that has a lot to do with the fact that they're not being interrupted. Interruptions do not only stop you in your tracks and stop you from continuing what you're doing, but it also overwhelms us, increases our stress levels, makes us feel a little bit off our game. You do that enough consistently throughout the day, every day, and you're going to be a wreck. So here are the things that I've implemented. Number one, any app that can interrupt me, distract me, that I might go to just subconsciously, automatically, something like Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or any social media or YouTube, I use what's called News Feed Eradicator.

5:24This basically kills my news feed for all my social apps. So even if I do go on my desktop, I'm only publishing or checking notifications and I time block it in my calendar so I only have a certain time during the day to do that. After that, those things are always closed. I also have removed all those apps on my phone. That way I'm not distracted. Also, when I'm working, I put my phone in work mode as a do not disturb option. I have an iPhone. They have like a work mode where I don't get notified. Now, it doesn't mean I'm cut out from the whole world forever. We'll talk about when you can check, but while I'm working, while I'm trying to be focused, while I'm not trying to get interrupted, this is super helpful.

6:04I also tell the people around me that I'm working with. So for example, in my case, Nicole has an office across from me. I tell Nicole, Hey, I'm going into the zone now. Do you have any questions or anything you need from me before I go into the zone? We get those all sorted. And then I know that I won't be distracted for a period of time. Now, one of the joys of this is that you actually get a lot done. You're focused, you're distraction-free, and you leave that session of work feeling empowered and really rewarded because you got some traction. You got ahead in your project and you don't feel stressed because you haven't been bombarded with messages and interruptions throughout.

6:40Now, when it comes to your actual tasks, one of the things I like to do is I like to order my to-do list in order of time sensitivity, meaning which one of these tests I have to get done first, second, third, based on a deadline or some sort of time sensitivity. This gives me a peace of mind that I'm taking care of things in the right order and that nothing's going to creep up and surprise me. By the way, my to-do list also includes any kind of appointments or meetings I have that day or the next day that I need to prepare for so I'm not surprised by, oh, I got a meeting in five minutes. I'm not prepared for that, causing me stress.

7:15The second reason why you'll feel daily stress is disappointment, is when you're disappointed by the result of something. As business owners, you might find yourself disappointed by the performance of somebody on your team, disappointed in maybe an ad campaign and how it went, maybe even disappointed in how you performed in a webinar or maybe you spoke on stage, disappointed in yourself. And a lot of us sit in that disappointment and get angry and frustrated and why is this happening and what's going on and why is this person not following instructions? And what you need to do is train yourself that when you get disappointed, the first thing you do is ask yourself, how can we improve this situation?

7:51How can we fix this so this doesn't happen in the future? How can we make this a teaching moment for somebody else? One of the things I learned very quickly is as a manager, as a boss, as whatever you want to call it, your job is really to be a coach, is to be a teacher, is to be a mentor. If you want something done in a certain way and somebody doesn't do it that way, the onus is on you to show them how to do it. Maybe they didn't get it the first time or the second time, or maybe they don't understand what you mean when you wrote it or when you said it. Your job is to make sure, without a shadow of a doubt, they got it and they can reproduce it in front of you so that you feel comfortable that you've given them everything they can to be successful so they don't disappoint you in the future.

8:32Now, what if they continue to do the wrong thing despite all that? Well, you're still responsible. You're the one who hired them. What are you going to do about it to fix it? Are you going to put them on a probation period? Are you going to fire them? Are you going to replace them? What are you going to do? You have to do something to solve this problem. Go into problem solving mode. Go into solution mode. Don't sit in that, you know, ugly space of a victim, of why is this happening? I'm angry. Fix it. If a water pipe bursts in your home, stop complaining about it while your house gets flooded.

9:02Fix the pipe so you can stop the water from coming in. Now, this also applies to yourself. What are you going to do about it if you don't improve? If you don't get the results you're looking for? Are you going to change your methods? Are you going to get help? Are you going to get a coach? Are you going to pivot and change direction? You got to do something. You got to take action. You got to hold yourself accountable. And what happens is that over time, what I do, and I actually have a post-it note that says, don't be disappointed, be teaching. Which means if I'm disappointed in a situation, my team, myself, other people, contractors, I have to immediately go into teaching mode.

9:36Hey, this is what I like to happen. This is how I would recommend you do it. Let me show you how to do it. And I know that might feel like more work, but that's what you signed up for. When you hire a team, you have to train them. And it's going to pay off in the long run. I know in the moment it's frustrating, but see yourself as a teacher. See yourself as a coach. See this as an investment. Don't dwell, just teach. Third reason why we feel frustrated or stressed out during the day every day is fatigue. Listen, there's something called cranky, even as adults, okay? Being cranky, being frustrated, being hangry.

10:12When you're not feeling good, if you're not feeling at your best physically, mentally, spiritually. It's going to affect your ability to perform. Willpower and energy is not endless. This is why I'm a big fan of preloading your breaks in the day. I like to start the day with a long break. Start with a good breakfast, exercise, fresh air. This gives me the feeling like, okay, I had a wonderful free morning. I'm ready to work. And I work for a good block of two hours. And then I take a 20 minute break, have a cup of coffee, sit outside, get some fresh air, and then another block of two hours. Then I have an hour lunch.

10:48Go for a walk. Make sure you schedule breaks throughout the day to recharge your batteries, to get perspective. That's another thing. Sometimes when we step out of our work environment, work brain, we realize, okay, this is why I'm doing this whole thing for building my business. This is the dream. Let me be patient. Let me see the long-term view. And then we step back into it. Breaks are very important, not only during the day, but also, of course, during the month, during the year, recharge your batteries. Have a weekend. You can't hustle constantly and expect to last forever and not get frustrated and stressed out.

11:22Just not possible. I've tried it. Trust me. And you can do it for a bit. You could do it for a month or two, three months. If you're young, maybe five months. But sooner or later, you're going to run out of energy, run out of patience, and you're going to burn out and you might just lose everything you built. So take my advice and make sure you schedule breaks throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the actual month and year. Recharge yourself. I forgot who said this quote, if you work with your mind, play with your hands. I think it might have been James Clear, meaning do something physical when you are taking a break.

11:55Play a game of table tennis, go for a jog, dance, do something that gets your body moving. This episode is sponsored by Time Doctor and Measure and Improve Productivity wherever your people work. Well, Time Doctor has been installed in our team. All our teammates have been using it for some time now, and we've tracked over 330 hours of time already. And what's amazing about Time Doctor is this concept of self-awareness. It really promotes self-awareness. And here's the shocker. We have teammates that are 100%, 99%, 94 % productive in the hours they work. Now that they know that they have a tool that can allow them to see what they're working on, what they're not working on, they're mindful of, hey, not being distracted.

12:37The thing that we found out about Time Doctor that has really helped us as a team is it acts like a mirror. It shows you the truth. It shows you, hey, these are the projects. These are the websites. These are the places you're visiting. This is how much time you're spending on each one. Are these things productive? Are they actually helping you get your projects done? And just off the first day, people are looking at their stats are like, oh, I got to fix that. That doesn't look good. And just by the mere fact that we have data now versus no data whatsoever without Time Doctor, It makes people a whole lot more aware about how they spend their time when they're working.

13:11It also creates a healthy sense of competition across the team, people sharing their numbers. Hey, what percentage are you? Now, we've been using it for about 10 days now. And in a few days, I'm going to get some feedback from the team about how it's been, what they like, what they don't like, and how it's helped them work. I'll be sharing that with you next week. If you want a detailed, up-to-minute picture of you and your team so you can manage productivity, engagement, and staff attrition in your business, you got to check out Time Doctor. Get yourself some peace of mind with Time Doctor. Join me and over half a million happy customers using Time Doctor by starting a free trial.

13:46Achieve 30 % more productivity and unlock the power of visibility and accountability in your business. Visit the Time Doctor website at www.timedoctor.com to get started. Again, get a free trial and improve you and your team's productivity at timedoctor.com. To wrap up today's lesson, if you are mindful and are working with the strategies I shared with you today to curb your overwhelm, to manage your disappointment and go into solution mode, and manage your fatigue, planning breaks, making your breaks fun and active, I'm confident that you'll feel a whole lot better every day in your business, even when you're taking on big challenges.

14:26Apply what you just learned today. Let me know how it goes. Email me at omar at 100mba.net. I would love to hear your results. If you love the show, make sure you hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, whatever app you're listening to right now. By doing so, you get our next episode automatically, and you also get access to over 2 ,000 archived episodes in our back catalog. That's over 2 ,000 amazing business lessons for you. Go ahead and hit subscribe or follow right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I always say that entrepreneurship is the best personal development program you can ever do.

15:00It forces you to become better. It forces you to manage yourself more efficiently. It forces you to be more self-aware and come up with solutions. It's a real privilege to be an entrepreneur. It's really something I feel lucky to be. So I wanna make the most out of it. And when you're on this journey, understand that you're lucky that you have this opportunity. That in itself will calm you down and realize, you know what, I'm actually in a good spot. Most people would wish they could start their own business and build their own thing. I can handle what's ahead of me. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode.

15:31I'll see you then. Take care.