How to Get Organized When Running a Business Feels Overwhelming

Take control of your days

Running a small business is like having several jobs at once. Every day demands a new skill, from managing finances to providing customer service. If all your business operations leave you feeling overwhelmed, you may need structure. Start each day with a plan, and you can end it with concrete progress. This guide will help you build a framework to get your days as a business leader back under your control.

Burnout & business owners

Anyone can feel stressed about work, but business owners and managers often have it particularly difficult. Maybe that’s because their work is so personal to them. Maybe it’s because they have to handle so many different kinds of tasks. Or maybe it’s because there’s so much to do that they can’t find time to relax. Whatever the cause, a survey conducted by Walmart Business found that 62% of small business owners experience burnout at least once a month.

What is burnout? According to the World Health Organization, it’s a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. If you often feel exhausted, detached from your work and less efficient on the job, you may be experiencing burnout.

Being disorganized at work can increase your feelings of workplace stress. It can make even small choices, such as where to start your day, feel like daunting dilemmas. Luckily, if you build strategies for staying organized, you can manage your stress more effectively. When you do, you can avoid exhaustion both on and off the clock.

To learn more about managing burnout, read It’s Time to Recharge Your Batteries: How to Positively Prevent Small Business Burnout.

Strategies for getting organized

Map your timelines

When running a small business, it can feel like you need to do everything as soon as possible. The problem is that if everything feels urgent, nothing is, and things can start to fall through the cracks. For example, you might spend an afternoon collecting all your tax documents for next year, but new orders piled up that whole time, and now you’re behind on shipping.

The first step to organized work is to map what needs to be done and when. Write down a list of all the tasks you need to complete over the course of the next month. Be as inclusive as possible. As you go, note the latest date you can complete each one without causing headaches. Once you’ve completed the list, get out your calendar and start marking dates. 

This calendar can now help you make informed decisions about what to work on each day. It empowers you to set priorities that are grounded in reality, rather than guesswork. Plus, it allows you to take a long view of your tasks. Now, you can save long-term projects and handle them during upcoming lulls. If you project this calendar even further into the future, you get even more runway to plan. Just make sure to update the calendar as you complete action items or add new ones.

For more tips on managing your time, read Time Is the New Currency: Here’s How Walmart Business Helps You Save It.

Build to-do lists

Creating your deadline calendar is like giving yourself a strategic menu of responsibilities. Some take a long time but don’t have to be finished right away. Some are brief but must be checked off quickly. Each day, you’ll need to decide what you plan to work on and what you hope to accomplish.

To-do lists are the tactical plans you’ll use each day. Making a to-do list can add structure to your work, which can help control the feeling of being overwhelmed. Checking items off can give you a sense of accomplishment that motivates you to keep working. Plus, anything left over at the end of the day can feed into the next list. That way, you never start a workday without a plan.

To build your to-do list, pull a few items from your calendar and write them down. Try to strike a balance between tasks you can finish in one sitting and those that will take longer. Prioritize ones with deadlines in the near future, and avoid those that are blocked by other tasks—you don’t want to order new stock before you check what you have left, for example. Finally, group together related tasks so you can work more efficiently. This is also a great opportunity to consider what tasks absolutely must be done by you and which ones you can safely delegate to your team. 

At the end of the day, revisit your list. Take a moment to appreciate the progress you’ve made. Then, start building your list for the next day, transferring any unfinished items from today’s list as you do.

Standardize processes

Every business is full of repetitive work. If you create a standard way to handle each of your most repetitive jobs, you don’t need to make a new plan every time you start. Instead, you can redirect that energy into executing quickly and effectively.

Make a list of the tasks you perform over and over. These likely form the core of your business, such as fulfilling orders. Next time you do one of them, write down every step you take in the process. The more detail you record, the better. It can also be useful to note how long each step takes.

Once you’ve finished the process, look over the steps you’ve written down. Pull out the ones most likely to apply to every iteration of this task. The result will be a basic template you can follow from now on. You can refine it by reordering steps for greater efficiency or by finding ways to speed up individual steps.

Repeat this process with the rest of your multi-step tasks. When you have these templates on hand, they can make repetitive work easier and faster. Plus, they’ll make training new employees a cinch so you can delegate more quickly once you’re ready to grow.

For more ways to tackle hassle, read 5 Ways To Leverage Walmart Business for Convenience and Grow Your Business.

Learn more with Walmart Business

When it comes to running a small business, there’s always more to understand. You can find plenty of actionable tips and useful strategies by visiting the Walmart Business content hub. There, you’ll get expert insight, whether you’re looking for accounting tools or ways to master marketing.

Looking for an easy way to save money? Create a free Walmart Business account today and you can shop for thousands of supplies at affordable prices. Upgrade to a Walmart Business+ membership, and you can save even more, thanks to free shipping with no order minimum¹ and free delivery from a nearby store on orders over $35.² Click here to learn more.

¹ Excludes most Marketplace items, freight and certain location surcharges.

² Restrictions apply.