3 Tips to Reducing Unnecessary Stress

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hosting a virtual workshop on "10 Simple Tools to Manage Stress" for employees of a Florida-based women's clothing retailer. According to a recent survey, the prevalence of anxiety among US adults has gone from 19% pre-pandemic to 35% during the pandemic and the prevalence of depression has gone from 8.5% pre-pandemic to 27.8% during the pandemic.

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We are all facing an enormous amount of stress. Much of that is stress we cannot avoid. We need to learn to manage it so we don't face the negative health consequences of chronic stress, such as heart disease and cancer. But sometimes we forget that some of the stress we are dealing with could be avoided. I encourage you to take more control of your situations, wherever you realistically can. Identifying the causes of your stress and then taking intentional action to reduce or eliminate the causes can go a long way to a healthier you. We all know that prevention is the best medicine.

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My 3 tips to reducing unnecessary stress:
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1. Just say "no". It's hard, I know! We have obligations; we have people that need us; we have things we want to do. But there may be some things we agree to do that we don't really need to take on. Do you sometimes say "yes" to something because you feel you should, even if you don't really want to? Do you take on more projects from a sense of obligation rather than because these projects are absolutely necessary? Going forward, I want you to pause before you respond to any project request or invitation to join an event.Pause and think whether this request truly serves you. It is much easier to politely decline a request at the outset than accepting out of obligation, then stressing about it, and trying to get out of it as you get closer to the event. Just say "no" (but in a polite way).
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2. Delegate. Are there things you do because you've always done them? Might other people be perfectly capable to do that task for you (even if they might not do it to your perfectionist standard and that's okay)? Sometimes we can let go of responsibilities by empowering others to take them on. By teaching, coaching, and guiding others to take something off our plate, we can help them and ourselves. Can you delegate tasks to family members or colleagues? Might it be time to pay someone to take over tasks you don't enjoy?
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3. Stop multi-tasking. Multi-tasking is so 1990's. What's more, it has been proven that humans can't actually multi-task. Focusing on one task until completion is a much easier, and less stressful way, of getting things done each day. Start each day off with a to-do list of 2 or 3 things that you’ve prioritized. Focus only on those things, one at a time, until you’ve checked them off your list.
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If you want to dive deeper into how to say "no", delegate, and focus on one task at a time, I highly recommend the book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown.
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Be well,
Christine
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