Written by Jan Baker (https://janbakerwellbeing.co.uk/)
An estimated 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22. This is over half of all working days lost due to work-related ill health. (https://press.hse.gov.uk/2022/11/23/hse-publishes-annual-work-related-ill-health-and-injury-statistics-for-2021-22/).)
Stress is the biggest issue we face today as a modern workforce, and as women, we often have the double barrier of also managing the house and family too.
So, I’ve written 10 tips to help you cope with stress, calm your mind, and get you back to focusing on the tasks ahead.
- Categorise your thoughts – what’s in my control and what’s not? Look at what you can control and work on reducing these first to make your stress more manageable.
The things out of your control, you must put to one side, as worrying about these will only get worse. There is nothing you can do about them for the time being, so the sensible thing to do is to park them until you’ve sorted out the things you can control.
The things you can control are things like what time you go to bed, what you eat, how much exercise you do, how much time you spend with someone, or on something, etc. Take one thing at a time and don’t overwhelm yourself with so much that you give up.
2. Assess your workload on a day-to-day basis – write out the day before what you want to accomplish the next day. Get yourself a planner, electronic or otherwise, and map out what you need to accomplish for the week, then organise it in daily blocks. With your work mapped, you have a plan that will help you reduce the stress of wondering what to do next.
3. Prioritize your workload (see below)
4. Look at your deadlines – work to these first. This should help you plan step 2 well.
5. Start a task instead of worrying about it – mind map all the questions and facts you have swimming around in your head – start brainstorming, don’t worry about it not yet making sense. You can organise your thoughts later, just get it all down on paper. It’ll look so much easier when you do!
6. Be realistic about how much time a task will take – try and allocate 90 minutes uninterrupted a day for getting stuff done. And by allocate, I mean pin a sign on the door saying, “I love you all but do not disturb me unless there’s a fire”. Switch off your phone too, so you don’t get distracted scrolling through social media. How many of us do this when we’re supposed to be concentrating?
7. Be brave – say no to tasks you can’t handle or don’t have time for. Do it nicely, but do it, nevertheless. Offer to reschedule if it’s important.
8. Ask for help when you’re under pressure – Does everything have to be done by you? For example, can someone else take over doing the cooking for a while, or post that update, deliver that order, or take that call?
9. Develop resilience – Someone wise once told me that you can visit pity city, but you can’t stay there. Mope if you must but it has to be a temporary state. It would be best if you started planning so it doesn’t happen again, as this puts you back in control.
10. Use File 13 – Ask yourself is this important? If yes, put it away immediately where you can find it. If not, file 13 – bin it! That way, you’ll never be searching for things that you need urgently or can’t find when you want them!
One of the best tools I use for prioritizing my workload is the grid below. And I’d really recommend this as a starting point if you’re never quite sure how to start prioritising properly.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower—the 34th President of the United States and a five-star general during World War II—presented the idea that would later lead to the Eisenhower Matrix. In a 1954 speech, Eisenhower quoted an unnamed university president when he said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
Basically, you split your workload into the four categories above.
High importance/Urgent – Do now – your priority!
High importance/Not Urgent – Block off the time in your planner to get it done.
Low importance/Urgent – These are the tasks you delegate if you can (or get a time extension for)
Low importance/Not Urgent – These will probably never get done, so see if they can go in File 13.
Photo Credit: The Eisenhower Matrix
Take it from someone who was put under enormous pressure and came out the other end. These things will help.
But, and this is important too, also know your limits. There will be times when you will need to walk away, and you will know when you get to that point.
It’s not a failure; it’s self-preservation.
If you’d like to read more, subscribe to my website. I blog regularly on all health-related topics and send out a quarterly e-news full of hints and tips, and best of all, I’ll never sell your details or spam you.
About Jan Baker:
“Your resident aromatherapy expert. Jan has a level 4 diploma in clinical aromatherapy which she passed with distinction. This means she has advanced training in the safe use of essential oils for therapeutic uses. Jan updates her skills regularly and has also qualified in full body massage and facials.“
Connect with her here –
www.facebook.com/wellbeingjan/
www.instagram.com/janbakerwellbeing/