Continued from Top 10 Tips to Beat Stress at the Workplace - 1

From self-management in the previous article, let us now move on to learn four interesting tips on work-management. Here they are…

Way #5 Schedule Your Day

Have you observed that sometimes, with so much running at the back of your mind at work, you forget to do the most important things, which later add on to your stress?At such times, a mental to-do list might not be of much help, as you might forget your mental checklist a little later..

At such times, what can help you most is taking a pen and paper and jotting down all you have to do for the day. You’ll be surprised to observe that you can do wonders when you are clearer about your goals.

Once these are listed, specify the time you can allot to each goal beside them. Ensure that the total time allotted doesn’t exceed your working hours. You may keep the first ten to twenty minutes of your working hours aside for planning.

Planning the day’s schedule can help you achieve targets within the defined time limits. If you are exceeding the time limit set for one task, you will know exactly when you have to cut short on casual activities. Planning every minute of the day might be a little challenging initially, but you will soon get the hang of it.

Something that can really help you plan more effectively is a quality relaxation. Meditation is one such known relaxation technique. Relaxation brings peace of mind and that can help you take better decisions, ones which are in your best interest and also of the organization.

It is okay to take work back home once in a while. But if it happens every day, practicing the points mentioned below might help you.

Way #6 Compartmentalize Work

You might have observed that sometimes when the task at hand is time consuming, you have peculiar sensations in the pit of your stomach. That’s because the mind says, “I will have to rush through this or I will not be able to perform the other tasks at hand”. At such times, it is intelligent to deceive your mind by compartmentalizing and prioritizing work.

You can compartmentalize a particular type of task that is routine in nature. For instance, if you are working on designing a website, every day you need to take inputs from various departments like content, design, programming, developing, and so on and then complete each task. Now, instead of considering this project as one unit of work, compartmentalize it as inputs from various teams and then assign a budget time to each task. This can help you look at the task as four smaller tasks clubbed together instead of one big task consuming a day’s time. Obviously, each individual task will take lesser time to complete with respect to the whole and that can keep you motivated to perform. Else what might happen is that our mind might trick us to think we haven’t achieved much during the day if we consider it as one task for the entire day.

Way#7 Prioritize Work

If you have a variety of tasks to complete on any given day, you can try prioritizing them if you find it difficult to complete them before deadlines. Prioritization can work only when tasks are not routine in nature.

Let us understand this with the simple example of an e-commerce company. This is a company that delivers products when you order or purchase them online. In such a company, the sales executive’s daily routine involves making sure deliverables are shipped on time and with the right contents. However, if something urgent comes up, such as a deliverable being returned because of defects, it may become his first priority for the day to take make sure it is returned in the least possible time as they have already disappointed their customer once. The employee is happy only if the customer is happy, since the management is happy and the organization is growing. This means the executive’s efficiency at work increases, which might some day lead to his promotion.

You can apply this tip to work of any nature, irrespective of what you do. It is easy; all you need is the right sense of judgment, which you can develop by spending a few moments in meditation.

Way #8 Evaluate At The End Of The Day

If you’ve scheduled your day and have prepared a checklist, it will be easier for you to make a note of the tasks you could complete and the ones you could not.

With this, you can evaluate the activity that took more time than planned and how you can address this issue in the future.

An effective way to practice these tips is to be calm and clear about your goals. Often, you must have noticed that when we do not get enough sleep at night, our mood is irritable and we don’t feel like working with the same gusto as we would on other days. We suggest you take around 6 to 8 hours of sleep to keep you going for the rest of the day. In case you are suffering from sleeplessness out of anxiety, Narayana Kalpa tablets can provide relief. You can consult a Nadi Parikshak (Ayurvedic Doctor) before administering these tablets.

This is the second in a series of three articles on Best Ways to Beat Stress at the Workplace. Read the last article in this series for some more out-of-the-box tips on how to easily manage stress.