Work destressing

[dmaze]

Work has been extremely busy recently. (Mostly in the "I have three high-priority things all to do right now, plus four people wanting attention in person" sort of way.) Ignoring the root causes of this, does the world have any suggestions on things I can do to just calm down? Angsting over how terrible the code is (much of it I wrote, even) or what other people consider crises doesn't really help actually get things done.

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Here are a variety of ways you can try to calm down. No promises.

Ways to talk your body out of flight or fight mode:
Go for a walk around the block or up and down a flight of stairs. (If your whole workplace is getting stressed, suggest that the next small meeting be on the hoof)
Meditate in whatever way works for you. For some people just closing their eyes and taking deep breaths from the diaphram is sufficient.
Think of things you love. Really love. List your five favorite people, and five favorite foods and five favorite places. Envision each one for a moment before going on to the next.
Increase your exercise outside of work hours, and get enough sleep.
Eat less sugar if that sort of thing affects you.
Have some positive thoughts you can focus on when you find yourself brooding.
Make part of your work environment less chaotic -- your computer desktop or your virtual one, or just some wall you can look at.

Ways to get your brain to stop making the problem worse:
Chisel out some uninterruptable time at work when you get to work on the things that are highest priority. If people try to talk to you then tell them they'll have to come back after such and such time.
Ignoring email/sametime for certain hours of the day.
Try to make sure things aren't slipping through your fingers using whatever task tracking system works best for you. Spend the 30 seconds to do quick tasks so you don't lose them. Make lists even if you usually don't need them.

I'm sure that some of these suggestions will be completely wrong for you, but some of them might help. Good luck!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

The one thing I find really helpful for time management/productivity (hence stress and chaos reduction): spend the last 15 minutes of each day brainstorming what I need to do tomorrow, and what I need to do in the near future (so deadlines don't sneak up on me). I have a post-it of each on my desk (and I make sure to check the "soon" post-it and see if any of them need to be moved to "today", and check for sources of to-dos that I forget if I'm not explicit about it (eg looking over the next day's lesson plans to see if there's anything I need to write/print/photocopy). Then, when I have a free period, all I need to do is look at "today" and obey it. This can cut as much as an hour off of the time my work takes me in a day, and makes me much less likely to forget things.

[dmaze]

I have found that approach very helpful where my problem is "I have twenty indistinguishable things to do, what's next?" But right now I have a pretty limited set of things to do with clear priorities; it's more that I want to be done with this project, but the length of the "things left to do" list has stayed pretty constant for the past month while the "help me figure out how to test it" pressure has racheted up.

[dcltdw]

I think I'm replying to what you're feeling, but I may not be, in which case, this should be ignored, probably with prejudice. :)

It sounds like you have too much work to do in the time you have allotted, which is stressing you out.

The slightly weird thing I'll propose is: accept that. "Yes. In fact, I have all these things I need to do. I do not think I have sufficient time."

The trick is really accepting that, but I find that once I do, then the anxiety of the future goes away, which is the cause of the stress. It's a kind of "fear of the unknown", where one isn't sure what exactly will happen, so I think people tend to fear the worst.

Of course, if your boss is a goon, then it's justified... :|

[lokiect.livejournal.com]

I'd add a cup of tea and remember that it will get better