STRESS BUSTERS..............

Stress and anxiety have become a part of everyday life. The things that give rise to these include work pressure, work dead-lines, aspirations, dreams, personal and family commitments, and what not. The list is endless.

We cannot avoid stressful situations but we can certainly do something to deal with our stress and anxiety.

There are so many proven methods to reduce the negative impact of stress and anxiety. I will share some of these one by one with you.


Today I am taking the most important method- "Setting The Priorities."

I am sure you can make use of these methods to achieve your "New Year, 2016, Resolutions."

The underline objective of all these methods is to help us learn to ‘focus on the present moment.’

The most common cause of stress and anxiety is, when we try to do multiple things at the same time. If not actually doing them together, at least thinking about them at the same time.

The easiest way to deal with this situation is to follow Two Rules-

                                          1. Set     

            

                                           2.   Do                                                                                                             

                  

   Now to set the priority, first make a “To-Do-List" of all the tasks you want to complete in a day. Remember "To-Do-List" is the list of tasks and not a list of your aspirations and long term goals. 

Although priority setting of tasks will help you to fulfill your aspirations and long term goals.

Second, set the priority of the tasks based on the assessment of their complexity, impact, time required and your interest.  

 Usually we are inclined to do simple, less-time consuming and interesting tasks first. We think that once we complete these tasks we will be mentally free for the complex, time-consuming and less-interesting tasks. 

But actually it happens exactly opposite to it. While we are doing simple, less-time consuming and interesting tasks, we are anxiously thinking about complex, time-consuming and less-interesting ones.

The net result is that we are not able to enjoy and effectively complete the simple, less-time- consuming and less-interesting tasks. By the time we get free we are already tired and mentally exhausted.

We can resolve the issue by rearranging the priority list.

-       We cannot compromise on Impact. Any task which impacts more  will come on the top of the priority list. 

-       Then come less interesting tasks.

-       Then complex and time consuming tasks &

-       In the last, come simple, less-time-consuming and interesting tasks.

The benefit of setting the priority list in this way is that you hit the cause of your stress and anxiety before it can hit you. Then you are mentally ready to take up the tasks and activities which relax, re-energize and motivate you. 

The day ends with a sense of accomplishment and positivism. 

To be continued.........................................