5 Ways to Reduce the Stress of Choice

Benjamin — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:57:01 +0000

As I was saying, too much choice can lead to too little happiness, but the psychology can be turned around. Thank you Melanie for the recent great comment, your “so this is progress” post nails so many of today’s technology overload issues on the head. Technology should make us more productive and efficient, not less.

Here are some tips to help reduce the stress and anxiety caused by the daily choices technology gives all of us. There is a real-world and a virtual-world application for each, so something for the office and something for the PC.

1. Make decisions once and move on them

How many times do you need to re-evaluate each decision? The research shows that permanently leaving our options open causes more stress and less success. If you don’t consciously make the decision, you will carry on trying to make it subconsciously, flattening your batteries in the process. Make the decision, then make that decision concrete. Take an action that moves it on, so that next time you think of it you are having a new set of thoughts, rather than unproductively revisiting old ones – Don’t wear grooves into your mental pathways.

Remember that there is always one more piece of critical information that will really, really help with the decision you are trying to make. Remember too, that it is unlikely to actually affect the outcome of your decision! Don’t wait every last piece of detail. Make a decision, then commit to moving on. As it becomes a habit, watch your stress reduce.

2. Declutter to move faster

Clear out your office and clear off your desktop. All of that clutter hanging around, both real and virtual, slows you down. It is a constant reminder of decisions still to be made, tasks undone and things unprocessed. Deal with it, even if it means putting it all in a folder for later. Put it out of sight. It will free your brain up for the task that you are doing right now, free from the distraction of the ones that you aren’t. Reducing clutter limits your brains options in a wonderful good way.

3. Have less to get more

Do you really need everything that you have? Fifty pens, four text editors, three mp3 players? This is your life, not the twelve days of Christmas. By using less tools, you can focus on becoming expert at using the ones you have, without worrying if you’ve fired up the right application or picked up the right gadget. Less gadgets and less things means less stress.

4. Create Routines To Get Peace

Routines and habitual behaviour are effective ways to reduce the number of choices required each day. Think of them like presets on a radio, that save you scanning around. They are automated choices with a repeated play back mechansism. If you do exactly the same thing when you wake up each day, you don’t have to think about what to do when you wake up everyday! If you build good habits that deal with the things that regularly need doing, then you have just de-stressed a whole area of your life. In the virtual-world, see what you can script. How many of the things you do on your PC are repeatable tasks? Have the computer take care of them, that’s what it is for. Most operating systems have good scripting tools. Scripts are good for the computer and they can be good for you as well.

5. Commit to one thing at once

When you have picked one thing to work on, work on that one thing like it was the only thing in the world. Build the habit of closing everything else out. When you are doing the one thing, it isn’t the time to think about the ten things are you aren’t doing. You are doing the one thing. The power of focus is incredible, build the habit of getting into a flow state and having that ‘matrix moment’ where you look up and it is as if the rest of the world has been moving in slow motion whilst you have darted around everything. You’ve achieved lots, but the clock has hardly moved. If you are struggling to get started, check out The Now Habit – Dealing with Procrastination and Why Don’t You See What You Can Do in an Hour?.
Be productive, be happy, and share what works for you!

How to Deal with Being Overwhelmed at Work

Benjamin — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:20:02 +0000

People are increasingly overwhelmed by their work

I confess it happens to me sometimes. So, how do you avoid it and what do you do about it when it happens? There are a set of practical steps that you can take to get back on track. Follow this list and get back on top of things, and stay on top of things.

The first step

Talk to someone about it. Talking to someone else will bring some objectivity and balance. At the very least it will give a different perspective. Perhaps be bold enough to discuss it with your boss. Employers have a duty of care, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Trust me when I say that it is generally not in your employer’s financial interests to kill you off! At the very least, they would have the costs of training a replacement.

Being overwhelmed leads to high levels of stress, resulting in the fight or flight response. That is a useful if you are a soldier in a war zone, but not in the modern office environment, however war-like the politics may get at times. So, if you are feeling stressed, it can be useful to get out and run! At least take a walk or have a swim to burn off that extra adrenalin.

Get some rest, start with an early night. If you can, take a few days break. It might seem counter intuitive, but having a break means you will have more energy to tackle work when you get back. Even just that decent night’s sleep will help you regain a healthy perspective. Longer term, you may want to think about increasing your level of fitness by planning some regular exercise. If you are generally not sleeping, you might want to seek medical help. The source of stress must be dealt with, or the fight or flight response gives way to the general adaptation syndrome, and eventually burnout.

Invest an evening or a half day in catching up. The harsh reality is that it is going need an additional push from you to get back on top of things, but it is an investment of time that will be returned to you. Procrastination certainly isn’t the answer, even though your brain might want it to be.

If you are already working every weekend and evening, some serious intervention is required. If your employer views this as a mandatory part of the job, I would say book some holiday and use it to find a new job. Unless you love your job more than anything or anyone else, it isn’t worth it, life is just too short. If you are self-employed and have to work at this level, then pick an end date, write it in your diary and determine that you will step back the time requirements by that date. For the majority of people that sort of work regime is not sustainable in the long term – it will do you harm.

Modern work has no natural bounds

In the days of ploughing fields, you knew when you had completed the job and could head home. With today’s knowledge-based working there is a lack of clear endings, and inappropriate use of devices like BlackBerrys isn’t helping in defining limits. You must create bounds and agree them with those that define your work. These have been some of the best conversations I have had with managers and leaders. You will be surprised at the results – if you are not, tell me about it. When you need additional resources, ask for them. If you can’t have them, renegotiate the work load. Remember, you are not bonded labor. Slavery is illegal in most countries around the world.

Most employment contracts will have working hours written into them. Yes, I know that most companies delight in ignoring these. It is very short sighted of them. At least use these hours as a reasonable target. For the self employed, I suggest you make a contract with yourself and have your partner or friends hold you to it. Be reasonable with yourself and others. In the long term, a productive person working less hours is significantly better than an unproductive person working excessive hours. This is true for the company and the individual.

Get to a work rate that you can sustain

The only long term fix is to balance work inputs and outputs, a sustainable work rate. Without this, even after you catch up, you will find yourself behind again. With a fix in place, you won’t get behind, other than for brief periods of time. The final piece is to clear that backlog. Start by writing a quick inventory of what it is overwhelming you. It may not be as bad as you think. Look at the list:

Can you renegotiate some of your commitments, to create some freedom.
Look at the largest and most important. Can you enlist help or reduce the scope of the work?
Are there any that feel like ‘impossible tasks‘? Break them down into smaller chunks.
Would some of them benefit from some planned abandonment.

Once you have rested, through that early night or short break, book that block of time to catch up. This might mean getting into the office very early for one or two days, a trick which can be amazingly effective. You might choose to stay very late one day instead. Just don’t burn the candle both ends at once! Use this additional work time exclusively for that backlog list. With some focused effort, you will churn through it quickly. As you feel the load lightening, your daily productivity will pick up and you’ll soon be permanently back on track. Now you can focus on staying there, and enjoying life!

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