By Martin Zwilling

One of the most common complaints I hear from entrepreneurs is that they are overwhelmed by the workload and stress of starting their company. Then there are the additional challenges of balancing the demands of family and friends. Having too much on your plate can turn your dream into a nightmare.

Some people will tell you to just get a bigger plate, meaning hire some help. But with the pressures of the economy, and limited access to outside funding, we all know this isn’t always possible or appropriate. I recommend the opposite, or getting things off your plate that shouldn’t be there in the first place.

In reality, many entrepreneurs are their own worst enemy, trying to do everything, working inefficiently, and imagining things that need doing which will never happen. Here are some tips on how to look at work, make some hard decisions, and keep your health and sanity:

Maintain a big picture perspective. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by day-to-day details, to the degree that they all seem like big items, driving up your imagined workload. Take a few minutes each day to reflect on your real goals, and eliminate items which don’t relate.

Set realistic deadlines. The more your workload grows, the greater is your temptation to set unrealistic deadlines for yourself. This results in poor quality work, which generates more work to fix previous efforts. Allow some buffer on every item.

Prioritize the work items. Relentlessly reprioritize your list and complete them in order, resisting the urge to skip over the tough ones. The longer that high-priority items stay on your list, the more stress you will feel, and consequences will add new items.

Keep a written to-do list. Most people can’t manage more than five items in their head, and when your list gets longer, it seems infinite. Write it down, but even then, keep it to the top ten priority items or less. Multiple pages of work items won’t get done anyway.

Block out time for priority work items. Don’t allow your day to be monopolized by distractions and the crisis of the moment. Close your door, or move to another location where you will not be interrupted so that you will complete the top item on your list today.

Count the completions. At the end of each day, check off, count, and celebrate your positives. A sense of progress is important here. Look positively at your progress as a glass half full, rather than half empty.

Take a break to recharge. Even a few minutes each hour to relax will re-energize you. Regular non-work breaks, like a trip to the gym, or time with family will be ultimately more productive than slugging it out all night on a given problem. Get a good night’s sleep.

Discuss the tough ones with a mentor. Don’t be afraid to discuss your challenges with a trusted friend, or business advisor. This will clarify the issue in your own mind, and let you see it from other angles. You need to stop and regroup when you hit a brick wall.

Stay in control of your emotions. Stress is a normal part of life. Don’t let it lead to anger and frustration, or loss of productivity. We can choose how we handle tough situations, and the best approach is always to stay calm and in control.

Eliminate phantom work items. These are items that you never intend to do, and probably don’t need, but you carry them on your list because of guilt or direction from someone else. You can’t complete an item that you don’t understand.

Wearing all the hats required to initiate a startup is tough in the best of situations. Then your business really starts to take off, and it gets even more challenging. As an entrepreneur, you need to seriously apply the discipline of these principles early and always to survive, and hopefully even enjoy the journey.

The writer is a veteran startup mentor, executive, blogger, author, tech professional, professor, and investor. Published on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Huffington Post, among others.

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By Norbert Mao

As Brecht put it in his play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”, “a fart has no nose.” The stench around the Museveni Court now seeps through the pages of books written by courtiers turned dissidents who feel used, abused and discarded. These people now pouring their hearts out were once the enablers who faithfully served the man they now vilify. The days of hope, elation and exhilaration are vividly captured before it all evaporates as despair sets in. Every person gets to a point when they encounter the Truth on the proverbial “Road to Damascus”.

Before Miria Matembe’s memoirs, The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Betrayed, was launched last week there were other confessional books that put Museveni in the dock. I recall “Impassioned for Freedom” by Eriya Tukahirwa Kategaya launched in 2006. Then there is “Betrayed By My Leader: The Memoirs of John Kazoora” launched in 2013. In an uncanny wordplay, Matembe takes her title from President Museveni’s book “Sowing the Mustard Seed” whose subtitle is “the Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Uganda”. Matembe simply added the word “Betrayed”. The theme of betrayal runs like a thread through these memoirs.

Betrayal comes as a result of breach of trust. Whether it is Kategaya, Kazoora or Matembe, it is clear that they were once true believers in Museveni. They lionized him as a Messiah. They believed he could do no harm to the institutions of State and indeed the Constitution that was crafted through such a painstaking process.

These books show growth in the authors. A new awareness of things going wrong while the praise singers bury their heads in the sun. From state inspired violence, corruption, nepotism, the national divide, hostility to democracy, personalization of the army to the entrenchment of a life presidency, Matembe’s book replays dramatic personal encounters with Museveni and his inner circle.

The first encounter is with the First Lady Janet Museveni. Believing she was her confidant Matembe often spoke plainly to her. But with time she learnt the hard way that access to the First Lady came with certain conditions including silence about the misdeeds of certain key figures (mainly relatives, friends and in-laws) in government.

On the question of Museveni leaving power, Matembe had an intimate talk with the First Lady. After the 1996 elections the First Lady told Matembe that with such overwhelming electoral victory her and her husband were going to retire in order to rest. Even when pressed that Museveni was entitled to another term, the First Lady replies “Mbwenu hati ekindi nituba nitwendaki?” (What else would we want?).

Then there’s the encounter with Museveni over the term limits. Museveni had been very tactical and cagey in his answers always saying that he would obey the constitution. He already had plans to change the constitution anyway.

Characteristically Matembe had warned Museveni against changing the constitution. A cartoonist captured the image of Matembe ordering the President. Museveni rebuked her for ordering him around and restated his commitment to abiding by the constitution. He demanded that she writes to the newspaper clarifying the matter.

Matembe indulged the President. She writes: “Immediately after the Cabinet meeting, I wrote the letter to the editor, New Vision. It was published the next day with a heading: ‘Cartoon creates a wrong impression’. In the letter I wrote that: “The cartoon created a wrong impression about the President, imputing that the President wants to amend the Constitution to remove the presidential term limits. President Museveni knows the Constitution very well and he does not need anybody to remind him to stick to it. So he will honour the Constitution and will not in any way violate or abrogate it.” She made a losing bet!

Reading these memoirs, one is shocked first by naïveté of the authors and then by their complicity. They put all their sense of skepticism in abeyance. You can call it voluntarily gullibility. Why do Museveni’s enablers let him get away with so much? There must be many reasons for this level of complicity, but I’m sure they range from the noble to the despicable.

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