Getting things done is good.

Getting a lot of things done, better.

After operating my business for a while and talking to people, I noticed that many entrepreneurs and content creators nowadays face a big problem.

They don’t get much done.

They are either doing too little or nothing at all.

And that’s not exactly the recipe for success.

Not enough to do is a problem that most of us face these days.

With the paradox of choice, we have so many options that if we look at all of them, we can feel paralyzed and overwhelmed.

So instead of doing something, we do nothing.

Has that ever happened to you?

If the answer is yes, you’re not alone.

I was guilty of that myself.

But ironically, doing nothing is actually a huge problem that contributes to overwhelm.

Without a ‘to do’ list or challenging deadline to focus on, you might find yourself feeling less motivated than ever to get anything done.

And that builds a vicious cycle with less energy, less focus, and less achievements.

Truth is that when we are focused, we can get things done fast and quickly.

But it’s difficult to get into ‘that state’.

So what can we do?

Here’s a counterintuitive strategy that worked for me.

I like to call this ‘strategic overwhelm’.

It’s about not being scared of overwhelm.

It’s about giving yourself a little bit too much to do.

It’s about setting deadlines you can’t avoid to miss.

So that you have to do it no matter what.

Here’s an example.

My main business activity is to sell digital products online with various small niche brands.

For one particular brand, I knew I wanted to sell an ebook.

I did my market research and I formulated some hypothesis.

Then I tested them.

I ran some ads to a sales page that promoted a pre-order offer for this ebook, which I didn’t yet have.

I set a date for the product release: it was roughly two weeks from the beginning of the campaign.

I made a deal with myself. When the first sales would come in, I would then be dedicated to write that ebook.

The first sales started to come in.

And that was my deadline.

If I didn’t write the ebook over the next two weeks, I couldn’t have delivered the product to people that had already given me money.

It was a strict deadline, but I did it.

I wrote an ebook in two weeks.

I did in less than 14 days what I thought could take up to two months to do.

The key in this example is to let others impose the deadline for you. If no one else is involved in the deadline, it’s likely that you’re going to miss it.

When there are other people on the line (and their wallets), we tend to behave differently.

That’s the power of the strategic overwhelm.

So don’t be afraid of putting a little bit too much on your plate.

Strategically overwhelm yourself.

So that you can get things done faster.

Getting things done is good.

Getting a lot of things done, better.

After operating my business for a while and talking to people, I noticed that many entrepreneurs and content creators nowadays face a big problem.

They don’t get much done.

They are either doing too little or nothing at all.

And that’s not exactly the recipe for success.

Not enough to do is a problem that most of us face these days.

With the paradox of choice, we have so many options that if we look at all of them, we can feel paralyzed and overwhelmed.

So instead of doing something, we do nothing.

Has that ever happened to you?

If the answer is yes, you’re not alone.

I was guilty of that myself.

But ironically, doing nothing is actually a huge problem that contributes to overwhelm.

Without a ‘to do’ list or challenging deadline to focus on, you might find yourself feeling less motivated than ever to get anything done.

And that builds a vicious cycle with less energy, less focus, and less achievements.

Truth is that when we are focused, we can get things done fast and quickly.

But it’s difficult to get into ‘that state’.

So what can we do?

Here’s a counterintuitive strategy that worked for me.

I like to call this ‘strategic overwhelm’.

It’s about not being scared of overwhelm.

It’s about giving yourself a little bit too much to do.

It’s about setting deadlines you can’t avoid to miss.

So that you have to do it no matter what.

Here’s an example.

My main business activity is to sell digital products online with various small niche brands.

For one particular brand, I knew I wanted to sell an ebook.

I did my market research and I formulated some hypothesis.

Then I tested them.

I ran some ads to a sales page that promoted a pre-order offer for this ebook, which I didn’t yet have.

I set a date for the product release: it was roughly two weeks from the beginning of the campaign.

I made a deal with myself. When the first sales would come in, I would then be dedicated to write that ebook.

The first sales started to come in.

And that was my deadline.

If I didn’t write the ebook over the next two weeks, I couldn’t have delivered the product to people that had already given me money.

It was a strict deadline, but I did it.

I wrote an ebook in two weeks.

I did in less than 14 days what I thought could take up to two months to do.

The key in this example is to let others impose the deadline for you. If no one else is involved in the deadline, it’s likely that you’re going to miss it.

When there are other people on the line (and their wallets), we tend to behave differently.

That’s the power of the strategic overwhelm.

So don’t be afraid of putting a little bit too much on your plate.

Strategically overwhelm yourself.

So that you can get things done faster.