Set Priorities
Stress management requires that you take complete control over the activities of your daily life. This means that you plan your day, set priorities and work on high value tasks first. The indispensable keys to time management are concentration and focus, the ability to focus single-mindedly on one thing, the most important thing, and to stay with it until it is 100% complete. Rank your priorities in order of importance. Focus on doing the first things first. When you jump from task to task, you run the risk of repeating tasks that you already did, plus you have to spend additional time trying to figure out where you left off previously.
Create Chunks of Time
This is not only the hardest challenge that a person faces, but the ability to concentrate single-mindedly is probably the rarest single ability in the workplace. Most of our important tasks take large chunks of time. We need to plan and organize our days in such a way that we allocate these chunks of time so that we can do the jobs upon which our success depends. If you can break your projects down into 20 to 30 minute tasks, you will find it easier to find those kind of chunks of time.
A Burst of Energy
The wonderful thing about setting priorities and concentrating single-mindedly is that, the very minute that you do these two things, you will begin to feel a tremendous sense of control and well-being. As you work progressively toward the accomplishment of your most important tasks, you will feel a flow of energy and enthusiasm. As you finish something that is relevant and significant to your company and to yourself, you get a burst of energy. Your self-esteem improves. You feel good about yourself. You have a wonderful sense of making measurable progress toward greater successful in your career. You feel like you are making a difference.
Ideas for implementation
Now, here are two ideas you can use immediately to concentrate single mindedly on the highest value use of your time. First, analyze your work before you begin and then ask yourself, "What one thing, if I did it quickly and well, would have the greatest impact on my work?" Whatever it is, go to work on that one item immediately. Second, once you have begun on a high value task, discipline yourself by repeating over and over, "Back to work, back to work, back to work!" This will keep you focused and on track until you finish the job.
Learn more about the author, Richard Whitaker.
Great tips Richard. I also find when I set a timer and am committed to stopping when the bell goes off I get more done. When I write in the study room at the library and know someone else is coming in after 2 hours, that motivates me to get moving. It's really a test of tenacity that says so much about our character.
Good point about the burst of energy from accomplishment...
Thanks Rich - Good seeing you at the 520 the other night, too.
Hi Roger,
I'm gonna respectfully disagree with your assertion that "Stress management requires that you take complete control over the activities of your daily life." Certainly feeling in control of our day and our activities can help keep stress low, but ultimately, stress management has to do with how we handle the days when everything goes haywire and nothing as planned.
As far as time mangement, you've got some good tips here, though I personally find 20 or 30 minute "chunks" difficult and much longer chunks better.
Thanks Kate Phillips http://thegardenofplenty.com
Hi Roger -
Great post. I have set a goal to be singularly focused on tasks, and to shut out the drive to multi-task. You're so right, my stress level is far lower. I am also someone who does much better when focusing in 30-minute increments, or no longer than an hour. It makes me work faster and with greater accuracy. The post above mentions 'when things go haywire'. I find that if I have made great use of those 30-minute spurts - I am fully available to power through the chaos.
Best to you -
Lynn www.lynnespinoza.com
Hi Kate, I think the important thing is for people to put activities into blocks of time that they are comfortable with, regardless of the amount of time committed. My personal feeling is that I try to due everything I can to minimize the stress in my life so that I don't have to manage it.
Rich
Thanks Richard. I have to set aside hours sometimes to work on one thing, especially if I'm writing an article or organizing something, because 20 or 30 minutes just gets me started! But I know that people are all different.
Probably the "people are all different" thing applies to stress management as well, I am less stressed when I can "go with the flow" more and work by timers and clocks less, though priorities still have to get met.
But I guess my point about stress was that controlling our world is only one way to reduce stress. But that's a whole different topic... maybe I'll write an article, you've sparked some thought about it.
Thanks Kate
This article has generated some good feedback, Richard. That's great!
It is our perception of the events that take place in our life and the interactions we have that can create stress for people. Stress is our interpretation of external events that produces internal distortion or strain.
For example, 3 people could experience the same event and there could be 3 different reactions. The reason for the varying reactions is caused by what has gone on before and the impact those events had on our emotional memory. (That is another topic.)
Generally, there are 3 common ways to deal with stress – avoid the situation that is causing you stress, change the situation or accept the circumstances. Another more effective way is to transform our perceptions...it goes deeper than accepting.
Your article talks about “altering” - putting a plan or system in place to help you get through your day effectively and efficiently. It is important to have these plans in place...but, what do you do when your assistant interrupts you with “something urgent” for the 5th time that day, the emails come in from that important client or the power goes out? What is telling, as Kate has pointed out, is how we are when these things happen.
It's our reaction that triggers a very real and measurable physiological change in our body that leave side-effects that last as long as 13 hrs. after the stressful event.
What is important to know is that when we learn how to balance our nervous system, we become much more efficient and effective and are able to handle the curve balls that life throws at us.
We've all heard the story of people who have forgotten “911” in an emergency. It sounds ridiculous, but that is the extreme of what happens when we are stressed...our brain function is impacted, as is a number of other systems. Long-term, this costs us in many ways.
So, I agree with what you've suggested...systems & plans are very important to daily living, both personally & professionally. The problem arises when significance is attached to the disruption of those plans. That's when it is important to balance the nervous system so that recovery is quick.
For more on this, I've posted 2 articles in Professional Development.
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