20Oct/104
Stop Stressing Out About Everything!
Sometimes it feels like you can't possibly finish everything you HAVE to get done between now and a certain deadline.
So you stress out about it.
But that is a waste of your emotional energy, and when you waste emotional energy you are draining the very energy that you NEED to get all of that done.
When I'm tearing around the house shouting "Aaaa! I'm so STRESSED OUT!"
My husband says "Well, stop stressing out then!"
We all know it's not that simple, but over time I learned that it WAS something that I could control, to a certain degree.
- Recognize that stressing out is a waste of your energy
- Write down everything you need to do before the deadline. Remember: NEED to do - not probably should do.
- Prioritize. Be ruthless!
- Work from the top of the list down.
There's no use stressing out over what you need to do. Just calm down and do it.
October 20th, 2010 - 16:18
My big problem is that I’ll keep everything in order with a certain system (like your awesome binder system :] ) and then I’ll hit one hitch, push back a few items, scramble priorities to get only the necessary items done, and my system will come crashing down. And then comes the stress. I tend to spend most of the subsequent stress-ness worrying about my “perfect” system being falling apart. I’ll try desperately to try to keep it together, which will delaying other priorities and finally result in the stress about deadlines that you describe. It turns into a giant mess — until I realize that the system is not the end. It’s the means to the end. And that this applies to pretty much all of my priorities.
I think a lot of stress comes from getting our means and ends mixed up. When we freak that such-and-such hasn’t been done in time, we should ask ourselves, what for are we doing this? What’s the end that this means is supposed to accomplish? This works for me for two reasons. I can figure out other paths that will get me to the same end, but with a different time frame (working out, social events, ). Or I can really hone on the bare essentials to get to the end result on time.
Thanks for a neat little post that made me think
October 23rd, 2010 - 18:25
Perfectionism is a huge problem for a lot of people and you’re exactly right: The system is a means to an end. At the end of the day, you can only do the best that you can. Just having clear goals and a PLAN puts you ahead of many people. Whether you’re running, walking, stumbling or crawling, just focus on going in the right direction.
Thanks for your great comment!
October 25th, 2010 - 14:36
my biggest stress is when i have 2 much thing to do and when i delay it and in the last minute i jump into it trying to complete it as possible before it is due in like my home work et.c so what i have learned that delaying causes stressness and that will affect your health when you just have 2 much 2 do like head ache, pain back et.c so never delay anything……
October 28th, 2010 - 14:14
Thanks for your comment, estia!
I’ve found it useful to clearly identify which tasks have a deadline and which don’t. If something has a deadline, finish it FIRST – no matter how far away the deadline is. The closer and more urgent the deadline, the higher the priority it is, but with practice you’ll be attacking tasks long before they’re due, and your stress levels will go way down 