As one of my favorite things to say… “Stress is NOT all your to-do list.”
And I’ve been asked a couple of times what I meant by that, so let me share it with you.
TOO MANY THINGS TO DO
I often hear my leadership clients complain about having too many things to do, or how they have too much on their to-do list, and I understand.
Oftentimes, when they show me their lists, they scream “OVERWHELMING” – because indeed they are!
Not only do I hear my clients complain about the number of tasks they have to accomplish, but also how DIFFICULT they are to be done.
Sometimes, they just don’t know how to solve them. But MOST OF THE TIME, they just FORGET to plan.
ACTING WITHOUT A PLAN IS CONFUSING
You see, they just try to start on solving things without thinking of a plan, a backup plan, or a backup plan to a backup plan first!
And when you act without following a structured plan, most of the time – YOU DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU’RE HEADING. Then without clear direction, everything seems a blur.
You’d just keep on running in circles accomplishing nothing EXCEPT OVERWHELM.
Yup, you get it….
When your to-do list is OVERWHELMING, you GET STRESSED.
So my saying goes…
“Stress is not all the things on your to-do list.”
Because it definitely isn’t, and your to-do list MUST not do that to you. If it does, it’s either…
It isn’t as organized as it can be, YET…
OR
You’re trying to fit too much in that single list when they can be divided.
And these are all situations WHEN OUR stress SYSTEM KICKS in.
Our stress system starts NOT when we have too much to do BUT when WE TRY to fit them all and do them all at once – because that’s just TOO MUCH for us and our system to handle.
We start pumping around adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol – making us ready for fight or flight.
So I suggest…
DIVIDE THE TASKS.
You can either divide the tasks by categories, by priority level, from easiest to hardest… or from boring to fun ones.
It’s all up to you – find out what works because to each his own!
What’s important is that THEY ARE JUST ENOUGH, NEVER TOO MUCH.
DON’T DO MORE THAN WHAT YOU CAN RECOVER FROM
Don’t stress yourself thin. Make sure you only do today what you can recover from tomorrow, or else you’d end up drained the next day – and end up unproductive.
I got to think about this as a subject for my show today because last week I worked 2 days in a healthcare center new to me.
Whereas, I wasn’t able to familiarize myself with the location, systems, and the organization itself prior to the work day – so imagine the stress that brought, right? Hence, the importance of having plans, backups, and back up to backups ready all the time.
The next day, I was booked back-to-back. You know what happened next, drained and tired the day after – I even almost got sick as my body’s way of telling me to rest. A great way to get reminded of doing ONLY ENOUGH, right?
OUR RESPONSE, NOT THE TO-DO-LIST
So, clearly… the reason why the to-do list does not define stress, is because they are just to-do lists, and ONLY when they become TOO MUCH to handle our bodies react and as a RESPONSE, stress arises.
Remember our basic instincts as humans?
FLIGHT, FIGHT, FREEZE
When faced with a threat, our bodies’ responses are either of these 3: Fight, flight, or freeze.
And it was more clear and more visible when it was ACTUALLY or literally what it meant.
But since the world is evolving, these basic instincts are almost forgotten as the BASIC PRINCIPLES, but now just applied to the corporate world – wherein if we’re given too much or if we have too many things on our plate…
WE CANNOT JUST FIGHT OUR BOSS, RUN FROM WORK, OR NOT DO THE WORK.
Hence, the feeling that we lack coping mechanisms.
But they’re still the same principles, APPLIED DIFFERENTLY.
WHEN TACKLING WORKPLACE STRESS…
My best bets or tips are: Breathe, take a break, move your body, and think of something positive.
After all…
Stress-related brain dysfunction iS a PART of NORMAL BIOLOGY.
Find out more about stress and stress management in my free guide.
To removing stress from your to-do-list,
