Managing Stress

Along with the responsibility and position in job comes the related stress. Managing stress on a day to day basis is key to a successful career and a healthy life.

What results in stress?

As you go up the ladder, more and more things get added to your plate. You might be an individual contributor who is doing an excellent job. With every execution excellence comes the expectation of meeting or exceeding the performance of the previous job. You might be a people manager. As your team grows, your management responsibilities increase.

In general when your responsibilities become bigger, you have more things to address on a daily basis. More issues to tackle, more people to talk to, more stakes involved in your decision making, all within the limited time that you have. Whenever you have unfinished tasks or decision that are pending, those keep nagging you. You might be outside work, playing with kids. But there is a worry in the back of your mind that I need to finish some things at work. This worry keeps you from taking a break, resting properly, eating properly and sometimes even breathing properly (shallow breathing). When this happens constantly, your body tends to react adversely and you are under stress.

How do I manage stress?

This is a topic that is being discussed widely with the demand for solutions at its peak when people are not only fighting with work related stress, but also pandemic related stress. There are some commonly used techniques that have been pretty effective for me.

Daily prayer / gratitude - I do matter

When you are stressed, you are thinking of all the bad things in life. Stress makes you feel low. You feel not worth enough or guilty or angry at yourself. You start doubting your capabilities.

One way to address this is to have a daily routine of prayer or gratitude. Everyday you think of good things that happened in your life, the people you are dear to you, the things you have achieved in the past etc. Be thankful for where you are now, the family you have, the house you live in, the luxuries you enjoy. Invariably we will find ourselves luckier than many.

Spend at least 15 minutes on what you like to do

Another impact of stress is we miss taking breaks. We are in the constant churn of things and we think that 15 minutes matter, I can get that task finished, I can do the things I like tomorrow. Days later you realize you have been postponing the things you wanted to do.

What you like to do are the things that matter to you the most. That is where you are destined to make an impact. So spending at least 15 minutes doing the things you do rejuvenates you. Whether it be reading, cooking, dancing, singing, painting, vlogging whatever it is, take a break and spend at least 15 minutes enjoying what you like to do the most.

Start journalling

One of the techniques I learned recently is the effectiveness of journalling on a daily basis. The HBR article on this suggested that the higher you are in your career, the higher the need to do journalling. Wring a daily journal helps you dump your thoughts out on to paper or digital media, helping you get some of the worries out your mind. Even if it is a short piece of 250 or 500 words, it helps you immensely to get rid of some of the stress.

Remember to breath

When we are stressed, we are not breathing properly. We tend to do shallow breathing which does not help in supplying enough oxygen to our brain cells causing unwanted stress responses and constant fight or flight mode. Remember to take deep breaths during your day. Start your day with deep breaths in bed. That will give to a fresh morning start. Take a few deep breaths at the start of your meetings. That will help you calm down and be at your best. Take deep breaths when you find a decision too tough to make or a task too tough to handle. That will help you get that extra energy to to tackle what is in front of you.