A major stress reducing strategy is good organization. Here are more thoughts on the subject.
1. Prune and Prioritize. Organize around your whole life. We are a complicated whole and cannot separate ourselves from ourselves and everything you do effects everything you do. Prune those things that do not contribute to life goals and essential relationships. Prioritize things that do contribute to human connections, efficiency and effectiveness. Effective is the ability to bring about a desired result and efficient is to do so without wasted energy or undue stress. Your vehicle may be effective in that it gets you from point A to point B, but may not be efficient if it is a gas guzzler. By using the tools of planning (what to do) and scheduling (when to do it), prune and prioritize to be both effective and efficient.
2. What is scheduled gets done. Schedules give you freedom "to" as well as freedom "not to". Schedules give peace of getting over the "someday I’ll" by putting a date to it. When talking with a client, have calendar in hand and directly set the appointment. When you receive an invitation, decide if you want to go, check your agenda and write it in. Be considerate by immediately RSVPing ("yes" or "no"), note on your on-going "to do list" if a gift is in order, place the invite in your "events" folder and forget about it until reviewing your upcoming weekly schedule on Sunday evening. Plan personal as well as professional. Being at your daughter’s recital is a priority and having it displayed in your date-book gives you the freedom to say "No" to anything that tries to encroach.
3. Plan backward and execute forward. Get the big picture and then break it down into digestible bites. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time and with space allocated for digestion. To read The Complete Works of Shakespeare in a year, divide 261 days into the 1450 pages that gives you 5 and 1/2 pages daily – an easily accomplished goal with two days off per week. Many people think they work best under looming deadlines. I suggest we work best when focused and many do not focus until the deadline is looming.
4. Learn real time vs. think time. This is a two way street: sometimes thinking about something much longer than the real time to do it, and sometimes discounting the real amount of time a project will take. Both are self-sabotaging. Few things are as de-motivating as dread or ineffective thinking. How much time to you spend worrying about a project before putting pencil to paper to make concrete plans. You erroneously think you are doing something when you are only thinking about doing something. On the other hand, how often do you think an assignment will take a short time when in actuality it takes hours. The answer comes by diving in immediately with hands on planning and, if needed, scheduling in procrastination or catch up time. Do not overrate your abilities and do not be afraid to ask for help.
5. Handle it once. Make it a priority to take care of it while it is in your hand rather or put it in the appropriate place for later. Do not lay things down to contribute to confusion and clutter. Use the two minute rule. If the phone call will take less than two minutes, do it immediately. If you have ten two-minute phone calls, schedule them in for later. With snail mail, immediately sort correspondence from bills and toss junk into the recycle bin. Place bills in a pre-designated place to be paid once or twice a month and always well in advance of due dates. With e-mails, do not waste your time opening non-essentials and make ready use of the delete key. Make one reply late in the day to a colleague who sends you ten letters. Write down phone messages then delete. When given a report or project to do, rather than tossing it aside to accumulate dread time, sit down immediately and brainstorm, making notes of ideas, dates, people to be involved, materials required, resources needed, etc. Stay focused. Going from one project to another wastes times and energy and is nonproductive.
6. Challenge your excuses. We are creative people, only many times this creativity is used negatively rather than positively. It takes creativity to come up with excuses. There is a difference in an excuse and a reason. A legitimate reason gives peace, whereas excuses engenders stress and conflict. What are your excuses and how much truth is in them? I don’t know? I’m too busy? It’s too costly? My boss (co-workers, family) will not cooperate. What is the root of your excuses? Fear? Intimidation? Perfectionism? Lack of commitment? Laziness? Inadequate?
7. Choose your attitude. Many times the actions taken are the same for work and for play. What makes one a chore and one a joy is attitude. And attitude is a choice. Choose to
Compete only with yourself and continually improve performance.
8. Learn to say "No". It is so empowering. And do so without guilt or explanation. Never say "Yes" just to be liked; it doesn’t work.
DON’T COPE, OVERCOME. Compete only with yourself and cooperate with others. Challenge yourself to see humor and fun in everything. Play games to keep you on track; lightly keep score and give yourself praise and rewards. Be your own best friend.
TESTIMONIALS: What others say about Mona’s teaching
Mona has truly been an inspirational figure to me. I have a problem trying to please too many people and Mona gave me permission to say “No” when it is in my own best interest. I now use this advice every single day and it has had a huge positive impact on my life. Mona is a very dedicated and wise person. She is driven to succeed for all the right reasons. The thing that impresses me most about her is that she does not judge people. Matt Levin, Baylor University
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