Business Development Manager, Tracy Webb, shares simple, easy time management tips to help reduce unnecessary stress.
Being organised is a great stress buster as feeling in control is important if you’re trying to minimise stress. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you don’t know what to expect from your day. The following tips should help you to feel better prepared and ready to deal with whatever comes your way.
Have a diary. Using a diary, whether that’s a hard copy or digital one, is an essential tool when trying to keep on top of your schedule. Making sure it’s updated with all your appointments and commitments (work and home) will help to give you a clear overview of what you have going on and better able to prioritise.
Have a to-do list. By writing down what you need to do on a single list (more than one list can be confusing!) you can keep a close eye on things. Holding tasks in your head just increases the risk of things falling through the cracks and causing you more stress!
However, your to-do list doesn’t have to be a list, it could be a series of post-it notes on a wall, or a whiteboard. Whichever method you choose, make sure it’s something that will work for you. The point is, by writing things down, you relieve yourself of some pressure because you no longer have to worry about forgetting them. A small win in itself!
Prioritise your tasks. Prioritising tasks helps you to see which ones are important so you can direct your energies to those tasks first. Look at your to-do list and decide what needs to be done now, and what can wait. These priorities may shift as other, unexpected things come up. In which case, go back to your to-do list and reassess. You may need to make some changes to your schedule to accommodate these new tasks. Prioritising may also highlight that it’s just not possible for you to fit in everything and that something will have to give. However, by prioritising you regain some control and hopefully take some of the stress out of the situation. You can find some great tips on how to go about prioritising your to-do here.
Plan. Make sure you add deadlines and due dates in your diary and on your to-do list. This will help you to prioritise things. It won’t serve you well to spend hours on a task that doesn’t need to be completed for a fortnight when you have something with a deadline of the next day! Sounds obvious, but easily done if you haven’t made proper notes of deadlines.
Learn to say no. Before you agree to take on something extra, take a moment to think. Is it something that will serve you well and, realistically, do you have the time to do it? Trying to fit in too much can lead to stress, and means you’ll get less out of each activity. Often, saying yes to one thing means neglecting another, so make a conscious decision about how you need to spend your time. If you aren’t good at saying no, try saying, ‘let me think about it,’ or ‘can I get back to you later?’ to give yourself time to weigh things up.
Break things down: If you find yourself avoiding making a start on something because you find it daunting, try breaking it down into smaller parts. De-cluttering experts recommend spending only 15 minutes on the task as tackling a whole room in one go can be too overwhelming. You can get a surprising amount done in 15 minutes, and it’s a manageable length of time, so you could try employing this technique on a task you’ve been avoiding.
Allow for flexibility. Things seldom, if ever, go according to plan. Expect the unexpected and allow yourself some wiggle room to adjust for when that happens.
If you’d like to know more about Stress Awareness Month visit the Stress Management Society’s website.
Most important tip of all: Self-care. Time management is only one weapon in your arsenal in the battle against stress. Making sureyou’re eating healthily, getting enough sleep, exercising, and taking breaks will help improve your general wellbeing and avoid the negative effects of stress.
Why not have a go at using these tips and see how much unnecessary stress you can eliminate from your life.
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