concerts or having a day of total sloth. Regard these as part of a programme
of active stress management rather than as a guilt-inducing interference with
your work. You deserve some time for yourself and you shouldn’t regard it
as a luxury.
5 Don’t be afraid to go to the doctor. The worst excesses of stress can be
helped by short-term medication or medical intervention of some kind.
People are often unwilling to resort to a visit to their GP for matters of stress
when they wouldn’t hesitate to seek help for a physical ailment. Don’t let
such feelings get in the way of finding the kind of support you need.
6 Use relaxation techniques. There are innumerable methods that can be used
to help you unwind, including deep breathing, massage, aromatherapy and
meditation. It might be worthwhile to explore the techniques that sound
most attractive to you and try to use them to help you to cope with stress.
7 Work it out in the gym. It may feel the last thing on earth you want to do is
to take physical exercise at the end of a long stressful day, but lots of people
find it helps them to relax. Join a gym, take the dog for long walks, swim,
take up golf, play a mean game of squash or just do aerobics at home to help
your body to become as tired physically as your mind is mentally. Find out
what kind of exercise works best for you and try to use it as a bridge
between your working life and your own time. The time you spend will be a
sound investment in helping you to keep on top, (but try not to let your
exercise requirement end up feeling like another kind of work you have to
do!).
8 Get a life outside your institution. Family and friends still deserve your
attention, even if work is very busy. We all need to learn to keep a sense of
proportion to our lives. Try not to neglect hobbies and interests, even if you
sleep through the film or nod off after the sweet course.
9 Take a break. Often our panics over time management are caused not
usually by how much we have to do but mostly by whether we feel we have
sufficient time to do it in. Try to take a real break from time to time, so as to
help you get your workload into proportion. A little holiday, or a whole
weekend without work occasionally can make you better at coping with the
onslaught on your return.
10 Prioritize your tasks. Try to sort your work into jobs that are urgent or not,
and important or not. Do urgent, important things first and do them well, do
urgent unimportant things soon, too, but don’t spend too much time on
them. You will have a great glow of achievement about having got them out
of the way. Block in time for the important, non-urgent tasks, so you can do
them most effectively. Review carefully the jobs you think are neither
important nor urgent, and either put them in a basket of work to do when
you have a minute or are bored with your more immediate tasks, or throw
them away.
11 Talk about your problems. Actually voicing what is stressing you to a
colleague, a line manager, the person you are closest too or even your cat
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