Task management

Managing your workload is top priority when getting swamped by the input of your business.
It is however not exactly rocket science to make a couple of very useful steps in this.
The first task at hand when being confronted with a lager than life workload, is to sort these tasks in manageable parts. You can start by rating all the tasks along two qualities: urgency and importance. This will give you four categories to sort the tasks in, like this.

Not all that difficult, right?
Well, there are two problems.

The first is that some people see nearly everything as important and urgent. In this case you will have to learn to be a bit easier on yourself and change the way you look at things. Not every task is urgent and important. When your house is on fire and your family is still inside, yes, that is urgent and important! Your tax returns are important, but as long as don’t postpone it, not directly urgent. You can set a date for this to handle it.
More about changing your way of thinking later.

The second is that some people have a schedule that is completely full. When you plan like that, most likely you don’t prioritize in the way sketched above. When you start using this system, never fill your schedule to more than say 60%! This leaves room for the important and urgent task that come at hand. If you don’t, the first urgent and important task causes the start op chaos and stress due to work overload.