Stressed out? 4 things to do

Stress is now the biggest cause of absence from work, according to a report by the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and Simplyhealth.

But what can you do about it?
Three of the biggest problems when you are stressed are:

1. You lose your ability to prioritise
2. You lose your ability to set goals
3. Your memory starts to fail

These combine to make you inefficient. This increases your workload and adds to your stress, so you end up in a downward spiral.

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Your responsibilities as a manager

As a manager this means you need to be even clearer about objectives and priorities than usual.

Priorities

Setting priorities depends on being able to see the big picture, an ability that diminishes when you are stressed. (You will have noticed the very short-term knee-jerk reactions of people who are stressed.)

Have your long-term priorities worked out, written down and in clear view all the time. Refer to them every day and make sure you check your day-to-day tasks against them - ask yourself “How does this task fit in with my priorities?”

Check your objectives against the priorities to make sure you are focusing on the right things. (Focusing on the wrong things is a typical reaction of people who are stressed.)

Plans

Take a mental step back and review and update your plans every day. Doing this will help to prevent the panicking that can often set in when you are stressed and can even stop you from getting stressed in the first place.

Memory

Memory is about having systems to make remembering easier. So make sure you have systems and write things down rather than trying to remember everything.

For more techniques get the recording of my teleseminar on memory.

Exercise

The feeling of being stressed is caused by a chemical that your own body produces: cortisol. It accumulates in your body and makes you feel more and more stressed, damaging your brain into the bargain (which causes the memory problems amongst other things).

Flush out the cortisol by taking aerobic exercise. 15 - 20 minutes will really help. If possible exercise at the end of a stressful day so you don’t have the cortisol in your system over night. Regular exercise will reduce the chances of you getting stressed in the first place.

Get help

For more help, tools and techniques get you can get any of the product in our stress range at a discount of 25% by using this code:

Stressed out