To manage stress: set priorities — list what is essential. Make sure you get enough sleep. Make sure to indulge in relaxation activities. It could be dancing, playing with pets, cooking, yoga, or sports. Remember to keep yourself hydrated. Most importantly, smile frequently.
When it comes to tackling work stress or burnout, delegate and delegate smartly!
I wrote a blog post to highlight the importance of task delegation, which covers a wide range of professions.
When tasks are not delegated properly, it is an invitation for additional stress.
Stress is a regular reflex when your body is triggered by an unprecedented situation. The body releases hormones and chemicals that help us deal with threats and problems. Stress and anxiety can be caused by many factors that add to your professional or personal pressure. Some of these include work, family, personal relationships, finances, health, bad weather, or traffic jams.
Relaxation is the Route to Happiness
According to a study by psychologists, relaxation builds your focus, makes you calm and adds momentum to perform your best. So, take time to relax regularly.
Your mindset towards stress factors plays a significant role in how you react to them! At times, it develops insecurity which is detrimental to you and the people around you.
If you feel underachieving or not doing things as you are supposed to, it imbibes a feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) or a sense of dissatisfaction.
Eventually, it adds more stress to your life and impacts your work and relationships.
Our own biases or newly cropped-up guilts often hoodwink us!
For instance, if you consider yourself an underperformer or a lazy individual, you might feel a similar spiral downturn regarding your teammates.
Consequently, you become negative about others' work and performance. This emotion snowballs into productivity paranoia — a current boiling issue or, in other words, a post-pandemic zeitgeist.
And then, you end up stressing others equally.
According to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, it is essential to overcome productivity paranoia which is reflected through data. More than 80% of individuals think they are highly productive, while their management thinks otherwise.
Identify Stress Triggers
I often try to complete the following statements (suggested by Harvard Business Review) to identify my stress triggers:
- I become overwhelmed when…
- At work, I wish people would…
- I think it's rude to…
Managing stress can be a matter of balance. It is important to understand your trigger factors and develop coping strategies to help you get back in control.
Some examples of stress trigger factors — an eruption of anger, fatigue, avoiding meals, headaches, distractions, nausea, helplessness, guilt, stiffness in the chest, isolating yourself from merriments, increased heartbeat, downheartedness and so on.
Set Boundaries
The best way to overcome stress is to keep it at bay! Set boundaries between your work and sanity.
Some people prefer to separate their work and personal life, while others are comfortable with a mix and match of both. Clearly define what strategy works best for you and clarify your boundaries with loved ones and colleagues.
Here are some options to consider for setting your boundaries:
- Work following your business hours. Once you complete your shift timings for a workday, resist the temptation to check email or take calls outside of work hours.
- If you work from home, create a dedicated workspace. Try to separate your work and personal activities.
- Take regular breaks throughout the day to regain your focus.
- When you're on vacation, disconnect from work life as much as possible. Let your employer know you will not be available. Set an out-of-office message on your email for transparency.
- Make time for self-care. It might include exercise, computer games or anything else that helps you de-stress.
Talk to Your Teammates
You cannot solve all problems by yourself! Discuss your difficulties and challenges with your teammates. Ask them whether they encountered any such challenges earlier or not. Share your experiences and ask them to share their own. Seek their suggestions and input. The sense of camaraderie helps you eliminate stress-prone challenges.
When you encounter any challenge alone, the challenge appears larger than life. On the other hand, sharing the challenges with your team helps to introduce several strategies to solve your situation. The size, impact and stress of any obstacles naturally diminish.
Delegate your tasks
To avoid burnout and maintain work progress — Delegate and delegate smartly!
Delegating tasks is a great way to free up your time. It ensures you can do what you love while your work is completed on schedule as well.
You can delegate tasks to others in your company or outsource tasks to virtual assistants or freelancers.
If you want to delegate tasks, you need to understand the objective of delegation and what you will accomplish. Are you looking for someone who can handle a certain task? Or are you looking for someone who will do the work without supervision? Do you want someone who can manage multiple projects at once? Or do you need somebody who can focus on one specific project till its completion?
Identify the person who will be responsible for completing the work for this project (this could be someone who's been hired for the task or a team of assistants).
Once you've identified the best person for the work, talk to them about their strengths and weaknesses. Share your limitations alike. This helps to develop a mutually effective strategy for both parties.
Encourage them to do their best work and give them all the information they need to complete your project. Some of these parameters include time, resources and capital to get the work done. Once the project is finished, give them feedback on their performance (positively) and appreciate their effort profusely!
Delegate tasks to people who can do them best.
It will keep your business running smoothly and save you time to focus on the most pivotal aspect of your organization: your clients and brand awareness.
Task delegation is an art! The more you delegate, the better taskmaster you become! Outsource your tasks to a Virtual Assistant Services company to expand your business and quadruple your growth. The great thing about most of the VA companies, including MyTasker, is that they offer some sort of trial.
The trial service helps you establish your business process, find best-fitted assistants and delegate some preliminary work for evaluation.
