Needle, Meet Haystack

Whether you’re looking for a job or are gainfully employed, stress can come at you from all sides.  Here are a few tips (some of which we’ve talked about before) that should leave less head-shaped dents in your walls and more free time in your schedule:

1. Condense your to-do lists.  Instead of giving yourself a laundry list of things to do, limit yourself to 10 categorized things.  Things like checking email don’t need to be done constantly, and grouping activities by area (computer, writing, fax, accounting department, etc.) can cut back on unnecessary back-and-forth.
2. Re-learn how to count.  When you do end up with a lot of things to do, instead of counting them off normally, switch it up.  If you have 10 things to do, count up from 1 to 5.  When you reach 5, count the rest of your tasks backwards to 1.  Psychologically, it will seem like you have less to do, and you can remain more focused on your task than all the things you have left to do.
3. Remember the rule of one.  You don’t need to make giant steps; sometimes, you only need to make a slight change.
4. Don’t try to multitask.  As you might remember from an earlier post, multitasking makes you less efficient.  Focus on one task at a time, and do it right; if you try to put too much on your plate, you will only end up distracting and stressing yourself out.
5. Give yourself less time.  If you have one week to do a project, but it only takes you a couple of days, don’t spread it out.  Get it done immediately by assigning yourself a 72 hour (maximum) window to finish your work.  Not only will you not be scrambling at the last minute, but you will have a time buffer to deal with unexpected emergencies, making final changes, and ample time to take care of things instead of spending all night finishing up.
6. Cut back on procrastinating.  It’s easy to get distracted.  But by taking steps to eliminate procrastination, you can reduce the stress that comes with doing things at the last minute.
7. Take smarter breaks.  Believe it or not, your leisure time can create major stress when you return to work.  Plan out your breaks so you can retain efficiency and cut back on your aspirin intake.