Stress Relieving Methods: Time Management

In this economy, the pressure is on for you to be productive. To do more with less. And to do it in less time. Be more efficient. Usually under rapidly changing, almost chaotic, conditions. This adds to the stress you are already feeling at work of just trying to get on with your career. And all of this involves being able to master your use of time as one of your stress relieving methods.

Time management is really a bad term, since almost everyone can manage time. You can estimate how long it will take to get to and from the restaurant, and decide if you have enough time for lunch. You can look into the future and decide whether to take one week or two off for a vacation. And you already know how to prioritize, which is what most time management systems are really teaching. If you didn’t know how to prioritize, you would starve to death because you wouldn’t decide that eating now is more important than watching the TV.

Time management is ultimately about dealing with the stress of interruptions. Here are 5 tips on how to deal with stress at work by effective time management:
1. Learn to say “not yet.” The current trend is to tell you to “learn to say no.” But very often, “no” is not appropriate. “Not yet” or “not right now” leads to a discussion of just how important this particular interruption really is. And deferring it to a better time may actually be more productive.
2. Learn to say “not me.” Corporate cultures discourage doing anything that lets someone else take the glory. But they discourage even more the “crash and burn”: that results from taking on too much. If you cannot handle any more tasks, learn to discuss who else might be able to do it, if it has to be done now.
3. Learn to say “not enough.” A lot of stress is caused by poorly defined or undefined projects. Your boss has an idea and tells you to implement it. Learn to tell him or her that it needs more definition to be effective. And if you can’t define it right now, or aren’t the right person to define it, see #1 and #2 above!
4. Learn to say “not here.” Many times, what you are asked to do should be asked somewhere else. Like the co-worker who wants to talk about tomorrow’s meeting in your office. Talk about it at the meeting. Or the co-worker who wants to review a memo at lunch. Talk about it in the office.
5. Learn to say “Na-na-nooo-nooo, stick your head in ….” What??!! What the heck does this mean? It means learn to have a sense of humor. Some interruptions cans only be dealt with in a humorous way. Not a sarcastic or condescending way. But if you can use a classic punch line or a quote from a great comedy to respond to an interruption, go for it.

Change involves stress, even changing your methods to cope with stress! But staying with the methods you are using now most likely isn’t working. If you don’t know how to deal with stress at work, then doing more of the same will only lead to more frustration. And more stress.

One of the best stress relieving methods is to try to simply remove the stress. If interruptions are causing stress, then use one of these methods to eliminate the interruption. This is a principle of judo: redirect the force of your opponent’s attack, rather than meet it head on. By eliminating or redirecting the stress, you are not removing the stress of this moment. You are also removing the stress of future moments, since by definition the stress won’t be there. Probably the best stress relieving tip there is.