Managing Stress
Posted on July 10, 2023 by Jill Orsatti, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
How to reduce stress, quiet the mind and prioritize goals so you can finally relax.
If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed from work demands, family demands or other areas of your life and feeling totally stressed, this is blog is for you.
From time to time we all get that loud voice in our minds that just won’t turn off. Running through an array of stressors or things that need to get done in your mind, that you either don’t have the time to do or the energy to do right now.
The voice seems to get louder and more insistent as the delay goes, putting you on edge so much that you cannot move anything forward, cannot focus on your current work and you are virtually paralyzed with being overwhelmed with indecision.
First off, research has shown that people are actually less productive when they are trying to multi-task, it negatively affects their short term memory, because the mind isn’t fully present on what is happening right now. Additionally, the toll that stress takes on your body and mind is really negative as we all know, so reducing that stress is super important. But where to start?
Here are some tips and tricks for trying to quiet your mind, take control and be more productive.
Write or type a list of all of the items that you are trying to accomplish onto paper or into your tablet or phone. I often tell my clients that paper is really good because it is concrete and you can actually see the list, hold the list and cross items off the list to increase your feeling of accomplishment once completed. Once these items are out of your mind and listed somewhere it somehow feels slightly less overwhelming usually.
Once you quiet that voice, now you can start tackling some of the items and help yourself get motivated. Find the one or two items that are the quickest to accomplish or the ones that you like the most. Check off the list with check marks so that you start to have a feeling of accomplishment. Then prioritize the others based on need, urgency or easiest to do by numbering the whole list
1-10 or hopefully less.
After you have completed what you have the time to do, try and put a date next to the other items so that you have a deadline to create efficiency and work on that the next day.
After you have completed those tasks and now need a break from the stress, visualize opening a large box or trunk, placing the list or even the problems into the box and closing the lid. Imagine placing this on a shelf and telling yourself that the list and problems are in the box and you don’t need to think about it right now. I will think about it tomorrow.
Give yourself some good thoughts, feeling good about accomplishing a few items on the list.
Try to breathe. Go for a walk, change your environment, if you can exercise, your stress will be reduced significantly. Now you can try and relax. Feeling stress about it only makes it worse. You have a plan and you are in control. Breathe, Let go, you’ve got this.
