Stress is something most of us experience, especially when it comes to managing work tasks. There are so many unexpected issues that can arise in a day which make it tough to be able to stay on track and complete your assignments.
We asked successful business leaders how they use stress to better manage themselves instead of letting it take over their lives. Matt Bieber CEO at QueriesAI shares that you have to first recognize if what you’re feeling is stress or anxiety as this helps you to understand how to handle it.
“Stress is often a feeling you have for something happening in the moment, whereas anxiety is thinking ahead to what may or may not happen. If you are experiencing stress, then you don’t usually have a lot of time to figure out how to manage it. Because of this, I like to use this stress to push me through a situation instead of letting it bring me down.”
Bieber continues to say, “I always use the time that I have to quickly identify my stressor and then try to turn the stress I am feeling into motivation. You sometimes have to just push the fear part down and hold onto the adrenaline you feel to get you through something that might be uncomfortable for a short period of time.”
Using your stress as fuel is a great way to turn your mindset around and use the stress to motivate you to get something done. It also helps when it comes to procrastination related stress as you can push through a lot of tasks when you use your fear to your advantage.
Other leaders suggest that you tap into your senses to be able to get a grip on your own feelings. “When I’m stressed, it feels like I can’t get control of anything going on around me. This makes it almost impossible to keep working efficiently because I can’t seem to grasp what it is I am in the middle of doing. Stress for me is really disorienting which is why I like to take a minute to ground myself before continuing on.” Says Duncan Malcolm, the founder of Live Skippers.
“I like to use all of my senses to be aware of everything around me because this makes it easier to calm my mind down. I take a minute to smell, hear, see and feel around me which slows down my heart rate and allows me to focus on the stressful tasks I have ahead. When you do this, you can easily rationalize your stresses which makes it much easier to tackle them.”
Sometimes you just have to revert to the basics to be able to make your life easier. Taking a minute to breathe through a problem can change your entire perspective, and something that seemed so big before suddenly becomes so small.
Not every situation is always that easy to solve though, and sometimes you just need a little help.
“Something I have learned in my many years in this position is that you just have to ask for help in certain situations.” Says Mitch Fraser, the manager of Flashdrive.
“You can’t do everything all by yourself even though sometimes you think it’s the easiest route. When you’re stressed, you are most likely taking on too much more than you can handle which can lead to really adverse issues like extreme exhaustion. If you’re really stressed, you might want to look into asking for help.”
Fraser continues to suggest that two heads is always better than one. “When you have more people on the same task, your productivity increases exponentially. You obviously don’t want to pull people from their own work, but when you have a tight deadline, sometimes you have to make adjustments so you or your team don’t have to experience extreme stress.”
Adjusting workloads is also a good way to ensure you are being more productive, and are using any stress to help motivate you instead of making it feel too overwhelming to even take on. However you decide to take on your own stress, it’s important to address it before it takes over your life. When not addressed, it can make your work much tougher than it needs to be.
