How do I deal with stress?

Feeling stressed in today’s world is pretty much inevitable.

But how stressed you get or how often this happens are two things that you can have a great influence over.

Without smart habits for dealing with situations that could be stressful life can be a whole lot more burdensome that it needs to be. You may feel tired before the week has barely begun. Be overwhelmed on a daily basis. Get an upset stomach, headaches or migraines too often and even start to feel burned out.

So what can you do about it?

The main focus will be on how to prevent getting stressed in the first place. But this post also contains a whole bunch of effective habits for dealing with a stressful situation when you are right in the middle of it.

I hope you will find a few favorites among these tips and habits that you can start using in your own life this week to reduce the stress and live a much lighter and more relaxing life.

1. One thing at a time.

You’ll feel better and less stressed if you just do one thing at a time. No matter if it is at work, in school or in your private life. This will make it easier to focus and to do a job of higher quality right away. Instead of having to go back several times and polish and rearrange to get the result you want.

If you have to multi-task a few things during your day then set off some time for that. Single-task during most of your day but set off an hour in the afternoon for instance to do all of that multi-tasking stuff in one big swoop.

2. Write everything down.

If your memory is anything like mine then it might be a bit like a leaky bucket too often. So write everything down. Your ideas, tasks and stuff you just have to remember.

Then you don’t have to worry about forgetting. And you will free up your mind for focusing on other things than remembering.

3. Keep your daily to-do list very short.

10 years ago I never used a to-do list. I got very little done. Then I started using a too overloaded to-do list. I got more done but I was stressed and felt overwhelmed a lot of the time. Today I use a very short daily list of just the 1-3 most important tasks. It works really well.

4. Don’t make mountains out of molehills.

One of the best ways to make your day and life easier, lighter and less stressful is to not build mountains out of molehills. To not create extra drama, overthink or create a problem out of something that doesn’t matter much. Or just out of air.

So how can you handle this bad habit?

Well, when a big problem is starting to build in my mind I first say something like: Hold on now…

This helps me to pause and become more receptive to change my line of thinking. Then I ask myself:

Will this matter 5 years from now? Or even 5 weeks from now?

Those two steps have helped me to build a lot less mountains in my life.

5. Spend 80% of your time focusing on a solution.

And only 20% of your time on dwelling on your non-molehill issue or problem. Instead of taking a common path and doing it the other way around. You’ll live a much more action-filled life and feel less pessimistic and powerless if you do.

6. Ask instead of guessing.

Reading minds is very hard. Misunderstandings will be plentiful if you try to do it. So communicate instead. You’ll have a lot less unnecessary conflicts, negativity and waste less of your and other people’s time.

7. Pack your bag before you go to sleep.

A simple one but one that can save you a lot of stress in the morning. Take 5 minutes before you go to bed to do this and you’ll also be less likely to forget something important like your schoolbook, wallet or phone.

8. Balance fully focused work with complete rest.

I usually work for 45 minutes. Then I take a 15 minute break away from the computer. I eat a snack, take a short walk or maybe watch half an episode of one of my favorite TV-series. This helps me to relax and to avoid stress building up during the day.

9. Set clear boundaries for your day.

This is very important, at least for me.

I need to have a good balance between work and rest. So I don’t work before 8 in the morning or after 7 in the evening.

10. Disconnect over the weekend.

It is also really helpful to find a good balance between work and rest from a weekly perspective. I do that by staying away from work and staying offline – except for one email check – during the weekend. I highly recommend trying it out.

If you have a cellphone for work leave it at your job. Or at least put it in silent mode, check it once every 24 hours and only call back if it is something important. Otherwise, let it wait until Monday.

These strict limits between hourly, daily and weekly work is a huge help for me to avoid the grey zone.

When you are in the grey zone then you are basically thinking and worrying about work when you are at home or you having a day off. Or you think about your private life and challenges there while you are at work.

Avoid the grey zone. It sucks the life out of you and can leave you so stressed that it becomes hard to focus or even to get a good night’s sleep.