Usually I handle stress really well,(I’m probably too laid back most of the time) however today I’m freaking out about my workload. I’m just curious how everyone else handles stress when they start to feel overloaded.
Procrastination.
If you put something off enough, usually one of the following happens:
A) The person who asked you forgets about it. It wasn’t important.
B) The person who asked you does it themselves. It wasn’t your job.
C) The person who asked you gets someone else to do it. It still wasn’t your job.
D) The person changes jobs/is promoted/demoted/fired/leaves the company/etc. The request can be considered null and void.
Of course, that advice works better if you have a hard to replace skill set. I wouldn’t try it with a McDonald’s manager.
And of course, there’s E) The person gets back to you to check on your progress. After 2 or 3 cycles, I conclude that the job is important and that apparently I’m the only one to do it. So I do.
It does reduce the workload wonderfully, though.
You’ve seen Office Space, right? Good training material right there.
What I do is plot against the source of the stress. The goal is to redirect stress right back at them, or create a distraction that redirects their attention at solving that while reducing their ability to hand down more stupid shit. If you’re working in an office, sabotage their chair. That keeps someone distracted for half a day. Drop an anonymous “tip” to the HR office on their behalf. That one is good for several days. Be creative. Take the offense.
ecfluttrbye,
[quote]ecfluttrbye wrote:
Usually I handle stress really well,(I’m probably too laid back most of the time) however today I’m freaking out about my workload. I’m just curious how everyone else handles stress when they start to feel overloaded. [/quote]
I’ll take your question seriously: I am fanatic, when it comes to time-management. I used to be overloaded and stressed out massively, and then I visited a 2h training course in effective time management. And with adhering to relatively simple principles, it has helped massively to reduce stress:
- don’t check your email all the time, reserve time to work on it
- only open an email, if you are prepared to action, then file or delete it permanently
- don’t let your day be taken away: observe how much of your day is planable, and how reactive you have to be; then block time for the reactive bits, and reserve time for project work, sending people away if necessary
- in the morning, structure your tasks in important & urgent, urgent, important and none of the above; then work your way through the categories in that order. This also works with emails, I have found out.
That stuff has helped me a lot. And if you now tell me that you are not working in an office, just ignore me…
Makkun
Edward Norton on Fight Club:
“After fighting, everything else gets the volume turned down.”
So true. It doesn’t have to be fighting. Train hard and the same thing will result. It did for me.
By not posting on message boards when I should be getting my work done
Question: How do you eat an elephant?
Answer: One bite at a time.
Apply this to your workload. You are one person and can only do so much. What you don’t get to today will still be there tomorrow.
Since you are on this site, I’m sure you already have a “stress relief” hobby, such as working out, to blow off the steam of the stressfull days.
On a side note: I don’t always practice all of this. I get buried in the stress of my job at times and feel just as you do now. Good luck.
Thanks yall for the advice. I’m typically really laid back and that may be part of the problem.
I’m definitly going to try and work on my time management skills and try and work things out on a level of importance as was suggested!
I think Wed. (the day I posted)I had the best workout I’ve had in a while…maybe I should get stressed out more often!
Anyway, thanks again everyone…a lot of good advice, and a lot of good ideas about redirecting work to someone else…if only it were that easy! lol