Follow these suggestions to reduce stress and get more done.

Life is far too stressful for most people, but there are some things you can do to get, at least, some of your stress under control. Here are five tips:

  1. Make a list of things you need to do. Don’t worry too much if you lose it. Just the act of making the list gets those ideas out of your head and you’ll stop wasting energy think about them. What you will frequently find is that over the next day or two, you will find that list and realize that you accomplished most, if not all, of the things you wrote down.
  2. Do one thing at a time. When life gets to be overwhelming, you will only make things worse if you try to do too many things at once. You will waste time and create more stress for yourself if a task isn’t done right the first time. When you are under high stress, remember to slow down and just focus on doing one thing at a time until that’s done right. Then, you can move on to the next problem.
  3. Turn off excess noise. This isn’t always possible, but wherever and whenever it is turn off the extraneous distractions around you such as radios and television, particularly news programs. These things can create a sense of chaos that you may be blocking out consciously, but which may be affecting you negatively on a subconscious level.
  4. Take an hour to relax. Taking a break will make you more relaxed and able to focus when you return to your work. If you have a lot of work to do, one hour probably isn’t going to make that much difference, anyway. Your body and your mind need a break.
  5. Avoid setting deadlines for yourself that cause you undue pressure. If the client doesn’t care if he doesn’t get it until Wednesday, don’t insist to yourself on having it done by Monday morning. Again, that little bit of extra time that you have to rest, relax and focus can make a difference between a job that done right and one that wasn’t. By not setting your deadlines too tight, you will probably have happier clients in the long-run.