How to Beat Deadline Stress at Work
Thinking about your deadlines in a new way can actually help your productivity at work. It seems as more and more technology comes out, it takes more and more of our time to allocate our attention to projects and deadlines at work. Between emails, the phone ringing and clients coming in, you may not have the time or energy to keep your with your different deadlines at work. But, one thing that you should not do is to stress out about the deadlines. You need to keep your stress at bay and actually play off it as if it was a good thing. Here are several ways that you can beat your deadline stress at work.
Learn how to focus at work. You need to train your brain to filter out any irrelevant information. This means that if you are busy working on the computer on a project, you may not want to answer your phone during that time. Let your voicemail get the calls and when you are down working on your project, take a couple of minutes to listen to your voicemails and make the necessary phone calls back. Designate only a few times a day that you need to check your email. Don’t check your email inbox every 10 minutes, but make a plan on when you will handle your emails.
Set realistic goals for your deadlines. There is nothing that causes more stress at work that having deadlines that are not realistic. If you find that you are under so much stress at work and you don’t think you are able to finish a project or projects by the deadline, talk to your boss. Ask your boss which project that he wants done first and which one has the most priority. If you prioritise your projects and work at the office, you can stress less about what has to be done when, because you know what you have to do and when you have to do it.
Everyone needs a little reward after work. Let’s say you have a report due at work by 5 p.m. Schedule a dinner date or drinks with the girls at 6 p.m. to reward yourself. This way you are more likely to get your work done on time, because you know that you have that reward coming to you after working. Even just scheduling a simple yoga class after work can help you as you know that you will get to de-stress and unwind from work. This can make you work more efficiently and get your projects done because you will be driven by the anticipation of your reward rather than the stress of not getting the work done on time.
Lastly, make sure that you are taking your breaks and your lunch hours away from your work desk. Go out and enjoy the fresh air and get away from the work at your desk. The less you see your work in front of you, the less you will stress out about it. If you don’t take your breaks, your brain will shut down from exhaustion and then you are in even more trouble. Also, taking a break away from the stress at your desk can make you come back to it more re-energised and ready to work.
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