Sometimes stress is unavoidable. If you have a major life change, stress is normal. For instance, if you have a newborn child, you are supposed to have sleepless nights. If you have a deadline coming up, you are allowed to be anxious and nervous… In situations like this, all you can do is to plan to be stressed.
I love this tip so much and I find myself using it very frequently. The concept is simple. It is when you know in advance that a period will be stressful, you make a plan to make your life as easy as possible to whatever extent that is possible.
My stress plan is more complicated and includes several aspects. I’ll be sharing more later on. But at the very least, your stress plan should include three main aspects: food, sleep, and recovery plan. Then on each aspect, try to determine how the stress will impact it and your plan to address it. Here is an example.
Scenario:
I am starting a new job in two weeks time.
Food:
I don’t know if there is a place to buy lunch at work. I don’t know what kind of food they sell in the area.
Action: I should cook in advance and take food with me to work. I can also ask my supervisor or the Human Resource manager to ask food facilities they have in the area.
Sleep:
The job starts at 9am and it will take me 1hr to get there. So I have to leave home at 8am. I need 1hr to get ready so I have to wake up at 7am. This is a problem because I normally go to bed at 11pm and get up at 8am.
Action: So that my sleep won’t suffer too much, I will try going to bed earlier, 10pm or 10.30pm.
Recovery:
Since this is a new job that goes from Monday to Friday, weekends are the only time I can rest. Will the weekend be enough time to recover? I don’t know.
Action: I will clear my schedule for the first weekend after I start my work. I will review what went well this week and decide what I need to continue or change for the future.
Plan to be stressed when you have no other choice but to be stressed.
(Note: the last two weeks of June will be a break time for this blog. No posts will be made then).
Everything Shola 