Be careful what you wish for! I think we all know in business that there are highs and lows, busy times and quiet times, easy times and tough times, but what if all of these come at the same time!

I am coming through just such a season. How does one manage to stay on top of things? As you can see I have let a few things slip over the last month or so (cough, first blog post since April! Shame on me). I have had a large intense project on the go with smaller projects running along side, and there have been crazy moments where I am sending things to print answering a million questions and then silence for a day or so where I am waiting for feedback or confirmation, but even the waiting has been intense.

Amongst being intensely busy I have also been rather ill, and here in lies the problem when you are running your own business and you aren't yet at the stage of employing staff. It doesn't matter how ill you are you still have to get up and do the work, there is no one covering for you!

Tips that have kept me going that may help you:

1. There is nothing like being ill and having little time to help you to prioritise. Lists have been my saving grace, otherwise I would have forgotten something or not worked out the important tasks first. I recommend the app Wunderlist. For me my clients well being came first over my social media presence, yes I said it, shock, I am not able to write blogs and post to FB when there is a seriously insane season happening. No matter how well prepared I am!
2. One day at a time. There is a tendency to think too much about the future, tomorrow, next week, that impending deadline. As cliched as it sounds, how does one eat an elephant? Bit by bit. The book The Slight Edge is great at detailing the small everyday tasks we do in order to get to where we need to go. I am thankful that in this crazy season, even with being ill I haven't missed a deadline and new work is still coming in. Just taking it one day at a time
3. Don't be so hard on yourself. (Still learning this one). As business owners we want everything to be perfect, we want all our ducks in a row. But unfortunately life isn't like that. And there will be times where we don't get something important done over something urgent that needs doing.

I encourage you to stay true to your clients, focus on the work one day at a time and soon enough a light will shine and you'll be able to breathe. I started by saying be careful what you wish for, we all want more regular work, but when it comes it can be tough, are your (and mine) processes ready for the intake, can we sustain that level of work?

If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments below.