If you are leading a team (or running your own business), you know a thing or two about stress. People react differently to stress. Some eat too much, some don’t eat at all. Some work even harder to get things done, others stop working altogether. But there’s one thing that all stressful people share – a decreased ability in the brain function. This is a death sentence in the knowledge economy. But fret not, help is on the way.
The Big (Little) Ideas:
Take on one of the challenges below for the next week and see how it feels. Your stress levels should see an immediate improvement.
- Seek and destroy.Seriously… this is the secret to reducing stress. Find out the things that you know cause you unnecessary stress, and eliminate them before the become a problem. Don’t like your cell phone buzzing every 2 minutes with a new email? Turn off the notifications.
- Find more positive coping mechanisms. If you are like most people, your coping mechanisms tend to be on the unhealthy side – the drink after work, the extra helping of potatoes at dinner, or thecigarette over the lunch hour. Replace those negative copingmechanisms with positive ones – take a walk, or even just a few deep breathes make a big difference.
- Keep to-do lists. Yes, you’ve heard this before, right? However, the cold hard truth is that people who keep to-do lists get more done.
- Train yourself to be calm.There are people in the world who can remain calm under the most stressful situations – most senior executives have mastered this skill. A crazy example… think about lion tamers. They weren’t born with the ability to remain calm while starting death in the face, the were trained to. A little exercise and daily relaxation techniques will take you a long way to facing any situation with calm and grace.
- Plan your day. First thing in the morning take just a few minute planning your day will help you feel in control and get more done. Pick the 5 things that you must get done each day and do them. You will be amazed at how much more productive your day will be.
- Plan your life. B.F. Skinner – the famous psychologist – maintained a 10-year planner. You might start with a shorter time frame, but these plans really can help you feel more in control of your destiny, which means less stress.
Don't let stress bog you down, take control of your health.
Why It Matters?
We all face stress. Almost everybody I’ve ever met has at some point complained about their lives being too stressful. The one and only thing you can do to make your life less stressful is to get better at dealing with stressful situations. They saythat the most hardest thing to manage in business is yourself. Keeping your stress level down will help you manage yourself so that you can get to important stuff — managing your business effectively.
Tools: Apply these to your business and life.
Take on one of the challenges above for the next week and see how it feels. Your stress levels should see an immediate improvement.
Turn off your auto email notification
I did this a week ago and I truly can’t believe how much time this saved me! Research says that we waste 64 seconds on every notification that we receive… Take control and turn off email notifications.
Click here for easy instructions on how to turn off your email notifications.
Share document using Dropbox
Stop emailing versions of documents back and forth. Instead share documents using the “cloud”. Dropbox is a great tool…learn more by going to dropbox.com.
Learn to text…vs. leaving a Voice-mail
If you don’t text yet… learn. It’s easy and great for sending short quick messages to your family. It’s much easier than leaving a voice mail.