Avoiding overwhelm.

Overwhelm.  Verb.  To buy or drown in a huge mass of something.

Or be in business.  If you're in a SME, it's really easy to be overwhelmed with the amount of things you need to do, and are responsible for because you know, the buck ends with you! The problem with overwhelm, is that it can be paralysing.  By putting some tried and tested strategies in place, you can move through this state and actually get things done!

Know Yourself.

Do you operate best in the morning, or are you a night owl?  Can you focus best with background music playing, or do you need quiet?  Of course everyone's different, so what works for your colleague may not work for you.  This doesn't mean you can't try different methods of working styles, however, to work at your optimum level you need to know how you work best - and do that.

Get things out of your head.

Your head is made to come up with ideas, not to store them.  Again, use what works for you - maybe you like written notes, or prefer to use an app.  Whatever system works for you, use it and get your ideas out of your head!  Write your to do list.

Batch.

Simple.  Put like things together and do them all at once.  I.e. pay all your accounts; do all your invoicing.  It's much easier, more productive and much calmer to focus on one set of tasks at a time, rather than jumping across different mediums.

Deadlines.

Someone much smarter than me said something along the lines of "a goal without a deadline is just a wish".  Your tasks are not real unless you have a finish date.  And don't keep pushing that date out either.  Be tough with yourself, set a deadline and take steps towards meeting that deadline.

There are many more strategies you can put in place to take the pressure off yourself to avoid being overwhelmed.  The important thing is to start.