The Stress Free Guide - Part 4

Being a good self-manager
Being a good self-manager is really the same as being a good leader. Some key characteristics include being clear, structured, responsive, fair, encouraging, energetic, and pleasant. If one does not have certainty, clarity, and structure, it becomes easy to work on the wrong things, fall behind, and find it difficult to gain control over your workload.

The less time you spend on long-term planning, the more time you will spend putting out fires. It’s not unusual to not always prioritize long term planning – our brain is designed to prioritize in order to receive instant rewards. This means that it is more satisfying to accomplish simple and quick tasks ahead of planning, prioritizing, or addressing more complex tasks.

Demarcation of responsibility
If you do not know what your responsibilities are it is difficult to set goals and prioritize. Keep track of your job description, which defines what your work entails, and is not important for planning. Ambiguity and unspoken expectations are stress factors in and of themselves. This means that you would rather do one thing too much than too little ”for safety reasons”. The way to address this is to talk to your manager about your job description and priorities. For example, it is good to determine minimum levels of quality to be delivered, or what should come secondary if the workload is high. Transparency is very important when setting the right priorities and to feel less stress.

Self-control – Objectives
Setting work goals is important for motivation. Targets may be measurable and concrete, but also qualitative and subjective. Specific and challenging goals often lead to strong performance. To achieve objectives, one could consider making goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Making specific and measurable goals can improve productivity by up to 50 percent. In order to reach your goals it is also important to get much-needed feedback from managers and others involved in your work – otherwise it can be difficult to know if you are on the right path.

Self-control – Planning
How do you like to plan? Do you like to make a to do-list or to wait for inspiration? Do what suits you; what is important is that you have a structure that you follow and that clarifies what and when things should be done. Planning can be on different levels and a proposal on how to put it together is as follows:

• Annual plan: It’s important to include the major events that are linked to work, but also to include large private events that will take place during the year. This allows one to get a better overview and to see where there might be any conflicts.

• Monthly plan: Get a calendar that allows you to concretely break down what needs to be accomplished each month. You can use various headings and then list what should be done under each one.

• Weekly plan: It is worth investing time on what to do during the week. Do this either on Mondays, listing what you have planned for the week ahead, or on Fridays, for the following week.

• Day plan: Make it a habit to create a to-do list each day. Unexpected things often happen, so it is a good idea to keep the daily list reasonably short and focused. Because cognitive ability deteriorates as the day passes, the optimal time to make your to-do list is in the morning, prior to turning on your computer.

Self-control – Priorities
To prioritize is to select, deselect, and rank. Goals and tasks that are linked to personal targets should get prioritization. It can be helpful to streamline things, addressing only one area at a time (phone, computer, meeting, etc.). For example, make all calls and answer emails at a specific time each day. Finally, it is important to plan your days with gaps for unexpected things that might occur. If you have no open spaces in your calendar you are in danger of losing control of your daily or weekly planning, and you may have to work late or bring work home with you, or end up feeling stressed in all areas because you do not have enough time.