Stress Management Flashcards
General methods to work well under pressure:
- Care for your physical self
- Start you morning off right
- A leaving work ritual
- Try not to worry too much. It will cause overthinking things that work best on autopilot. Our desire to avoid failure often increases the chances of us failing. Some actions work best outside our conscious control.
- Pressure is something we create. It’s about the meaning we assign to a situation. Get out of the all or nothing mindset and view pressure as a challenge, rather than a threat.
- Look for personal satisfaction in your work
- Developing mental distance from work pressure:
1. Separate yourself from your thoughts, take a step back.
2. Examine your emotions around the issue, after that, ask yourself why you feel this way.
3. Determine the true stakes of failure. Usually it is not as bad as we think. (Recognize the difference between urgent and important)
The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
William James
Practical tips to function well when the stakes are high, and you need to pull it off:
Analyze first:
1 How urgent is it?
2 How much time do you have?
3 What additional information do you need?
4 What do you need to achieve?
Then generate and evaluate possible solutions and analyze them so you can pick the best one.
- Can you put aside less important tasks for now? Try to reduce your workload.
- Also see how you can make your private life easier.
- Divide one big task into smaller tasks. So it will feel more manageable.
- Prioritize your tasks, first high priority, and tasks you do not look forward to. Make sure your first task is done quickly, so you can built momentum
- Don’t try to multitask, schedule time for deep work. Turn off messages, so you can work focussed.
- Engage with others. So they are able to help you
- Don’t try to do everything perfect. “Perfect”, may not be as important as “done”.
Pressure triggers at the workplace:
- Time pressure
- You are not prepared enough
- Other tasks (people) are dependent on you
- Work overload (quantity/ quality)
- Relationship strain; hostel, uncommunicative, uncooperative
- Trying to please everyone at the same time
- Uncertainty
Consequences of stress:
**Physical **> Lack of energy, sleep, unable to perform
**Emotional **> Irritation, no sense of humor, apathy, negative thoughts
**Cognitive **> Mental slowness, confusion, worry, lose focus
Behavioral > Feeling lonely, not getting along with coworkers
Overanalyzes versus Overconfidence
Overanalysis? Focus on what you know you can do and aim for progress, not perfection.
Overconfidence? Stay humble and accountable, learn from mistakes and know you limits. Think ahead.
How to deal with stressed colleagues
- Be respectful, use your emotional intelligence to solve problems.
- Encourage people to express ideas, to make processes more efficient.
- Praise more than criticize, try to avoid to react negatively
- Know you colleagues workstyles
- Avoid getting hooked by their stressed behavior, when you start feeling angry, take a few deep breaths
- Don’t take it personal. Recognize you are not the target of your colleague
- Engage with colleagues that can emphasize and might have good solutions. Ask them to challenge you thinking.
What is stress?
Pressure can energize us, but too much or too less of it can have the opposite effect.
Low pressure results in low performance. These are people who are unchallenged, bored, and unmotivated to work hard.
**Moderate pressure **results in good performance. These are people who are motivated to work hard—but don’t feel overloaded or overwhelmed. They’re engaged, happy, and productive.
High pressure results in unhappy performance and stress. These are people who are overwhelmed, unhappy, and struggling to manage the demands on their time.
The hormones cortisol and adrenaline flood your system, boosting your heart rate, increasing your energy supply, and preparing you to react. When the situation is over, your body and hormone levels return to normal.
When stress is happening regularly it can impact us negatively, this is known as chronic stress. You produce more cortisol than your body can release, making your body work harder. If you treat every situation as high-stakes, you won’t have the energy to succeed in actual high-pressure situations.
One size does not fit all. Factores:
- Personality. Introverts are easily overstimulated/ extraverts need high amounts of pressure to feel motivated.
- Self perception, the more confident, the better you deal with pressure. Recasting negative thoughts in positive ones, will help in making you feel more secure.
- Skill level, always make sure you are still challenged and interested. But also that you experience enough comfort.
- Task complexity, when possible tackle complex tasks in a low pressure environments
Strive for excellence, not perfection. If perfection is your goal, you’re putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. Perfection is more about the result, while excellence has to do with the process. When we strive for excellence, we aim to do our best—but understand that mistakes are part of the growth process.
How do you deal with conflict in the workplace?
- Use you emotional intelligence to solve problems
- Conflict can be constructive, it can lead to new ideas
- Be aware of your own emotions. When you start feeling angry, take a few deep breaths
- Engage with colleagues that can emphasize and might have good solutions. Ask them to challenge you thinking.
- Suggest instead use terms like should and need
- Let others take the lead too, welcome input
- Gain trust instead of control
- Have healthy boundries
How to built confidence at work?
What you say over and over is what you will start to believe, we are raised to be modest. And that is not always serving us.
When downplaying your gifts you contribute less.
So be truthfully positive in your interactions to yourself and others. Words have power. And work on body posture.
Elements of self confidence:
**Identity **> aligning goals with your values, create a development plan
Self respect > liking who you are > not just pleasing people at all costs > have clear boundaries
**Competence **> understanding your strengths and abilities > communicate it when it is appropriate, bring people in touch with your expertise
Belonging > Surround yourself with people that believe in you. Reach out for help, engage in meaningful collaborations
What is a burnout?
Simply defined, burnout is a continued state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion brought on by prolonged, excessive stress.
By the time we reach “burnout,” our internal fire is smothered. We’re left feeling empty, sluggish, and unable to cope with life’s responsibilities. And that leads to burnout’s three hallmark components: exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness. We worked on maximum capacity for too long.
At the core of burnout is a feeling of disillusionment. We put all our energy and time into a job, relationship, or cause. But no matter how devoted we are, our efforts are never enough. The demands are constant, and the breaks are minimal. And so, we deplete our resources until we become disillusioned with the very thing that once made us passionate.
The difference between burnout and stress is a matter of “How much?” and “For how long?”
Symptoms of Burnout
Emotional: hopelessness/ apathy/ self-doubt/ detachment/ despondency
Productivity: poor work quality/ decreased productivity/ irritability/ angry/ alienation
Physical: pains/ illness/ loss of appetite/ trouble sleeping/ chronic fatigue
Stages of Burnout
1. Excessive ambition
2. Working harder
3. Shifting priorities > our personal obligation becomes burdensome instead of fun. And harmful habits like not eating well, not sleeping enough. Panicky and forgetful.
4. Denying problems/ obvious behavior changes/ depersonalization and emptiness
5. Physical and emotional collapse > you cannot keep it up, no matter how hard you try.
Part of overcoming burnout is knowing when to push ahead and when to let go. It’s about regaining a sense of long-term balance.
Take care, say no now, connect, move, enjoy <3
