This week we talk about a subject dear to our hearts – author overwhelm.

It’s so easy to become overwhelmed in this digital age, with everything that we are bombarded with and told we “have to” do to succeed as a self published author.

This episode we talk you through the tips and tricks we use to help us work through the overwhelm and keep writing. It’s another fun episode, the SPA Girls were together in person this week, so we had a laugh as usual…

We believe that there are Three types of triggers

Internal – Self-doubt. That internal voice that is telling you that you are not good enough.

Physical – If health is poor your work will suffer. Sitting and writing will affect you so you need to look after yourself.

External – Anything outside our control that puts pressure on us, and limits our achievements in all sorts of ways.

How do we deal with them?

Internal

Wendy suffers from major self-doubt which, considering her success, the rest of us find rather ironic. As a people pleaser, she is constantly worrying about which project to work on next so as not to disappoint her readers.

Wendy’s answer to this was to develop an action plan for her days, weeks and the year ahead. With this in place she can see when she can schedule in any other new work or that she can’t.

Shar struggles with procrastination, no doubt an issue with her perfectionism. She has a wardrobe full of self-help books!

Instead of writing large to do lists which were too daunting she started noting what she actually did achieve, which is always more than she’d initially thought.

Physical

Cheryl suffers with her back. Knowing what affects her has made her take precautions to minimize the risks.

She bought a standing desk and finds this ideal, as alternating with sitting and standing makes a big difference.

Trudi does Karate and finds that even if she doesn’t feel like going, by forcing herself she will always feel better physically and her head will clear of all the troubles real or imaginary.

Take small steps to address things and just to ensure you stay well.

Any exercise will not only help your physical health but also your mental health.

Walking by yourself is always good, but with a friend you can often share a burden or use them as a sounding board for family or work issues.

Water can help in so many ways. It soothes and invigorates.

External

Trudi decided to move out of our city. Big slam of overwhelm right there! This is life getting in the way majorly. With getting the house more saleable and packing writing took a back seat.

Accepting this would happen was a big help. By using this tactic, when she came back to writing she had more enthusiasm because she’d missed it and had so many new ideas.

Cheryl also has a part-time job outside the home. It is time spent away from her writing which is a pain but it’s also nice to have outside contact, and she’s turned the lack of time into a positive by utilizing what time she does have at home by being more organized.

Nobody goes through this business without having self-doubts but being aware of them is a major step in dealing with them.

Ensure your family/friends understand what you are doing, why you are doing it and what it means to you. I you are proving to them that you are serious and you are producing something then they will be more inclined to support you.

Find your own triggers. How and when do they manifest themselves? What would help you deal with them?

We’ll have more to offer on this topic in our book due out next month.