Sep 19, 2008
Print this post
Dealing with Stress
Our work week can bring with it all types of challenges. How we deal with those challenges will affect our stress levels. By being organized and managing our time effectively, we can cut back on our stressors.
Let’s take a deeper look into stress .
Stress can be defined as a person’s non-specific reaction to demands placed on the body and mind. People can experience external or internal stress.
External stress is anything that is outside the person. For instance, particular projects or people, your job, your family, your relationships, these can all be external stressors. Even the temperature outside can be an external stressor.
Internal stress is things which we put on ourselves like competitiveness, ambitions and goals. You can also have internal stressors when you’re sick such as an infection or inflammation.
Time management can assist in dealing with external stress. By managing your time more effectively you are lessening the external stressors in that part of your life. Research has found that people who manage the stress in their lives and use effective time management techniques share some common things:
- Have a tendency to look at life as challenging instead of a constant source of stress;
- Are more focused and driven;
- Don’t feel like the victim because they have a sense of control over their lives.
Want a quick way to look at how you deal with external and internal stressors? Take a look at the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety’s website at and take their stress management quiz. It’s a neat little way of looking at your stress management style.
Stress can be a very powerful thing. If not handled correctly, stress can be very debilitating. This is why time management is so important. It helps alleviate some of that stress. Time management is meant to make life easier and smoother. Our business lives are hectic enough. By learning how to prioritize our tasks, get things done and not focus on the trivial things, we can greatly reduce our stress levels. So ask yourself “what’s stressing me out?” When you know the answer to that question you can start to develop a plan of action.
I took the test but it didn’t provide any results, just produced an ad of sorts. Anyway, I agree with you 100% on your analysis of time management related stress. What has helped me a great deal in the last year is reading and applying David Allen’s GTD principals.
I used and taught Covey and Daytimer for many years before reading David Allen’s GTD book and switching to GTD. And the major change I realized was reduced stress. As soon as I accept a task at a meeting, in an email or even from my own thoughts I get it into my trusted GTD system and forget about it. This is a real stress reducer.
I agree, time management is very important in managing stress. Great ideas.
A lack of time is one of the major causes of stress in society, and time management can help deal with this source of stress. An essential step to doing this well is to plan your work and work your plan. This planning can occur at many levels, yearly, monthly and weekly, but it will also involve setting a daily to do list. This is a prioritized list of things to do, starting with the most important to you and/or your organization.
Thanks for all the great feedback.
Knowing how to prioritize and how to get things done is key.