CONCEPT OF STRESS MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
It has been said that there are few differences
between people, reflecting on this, certain question comes to mind as to why
some people tend to be aggressive intelligent, depressed, introverted, etc.
Therefore the question to ask is why some of us make friends easily
while others are lonely; why two people come out of a gathering, school, and
church etc. with different perceptions. Personally as consistent behavioral patterns originating
from within an individual comes into play, the way one carries oneself, one’s
mannerism, make-ups, attitude to people, character formation, response to
environment and change, make up personality. When we say one is not acting oneself,
it implies that one is under stress. Although stress is relative, it is inextricably
interwoven with life. Hluman beings, while trying to cope with some
environmental forces and maintain some kind of
equilibrium land themselves into stress. Stress can then be seen as the
reaction of human beings, which occurs when they can no longer meet the demands
of their environments. It is the body’s response to those pressures in life.
Stress becomes
part of our everyday life, but there can be a way out. Effective and efficient
management of stress is vital if we are to remain sane, functional, productive
and healthy in our troubled world. This is because stress can result to
dwindling productivity.
OCCUPATIONAL STRESS
Stress in the workplace is referred to as Burnout.
Burnout is a state of physical and mental exhaustion caused by long-term
involvement in a situation that is emotionally demanding. The emotional demands
are most often caused by a combination of factors normally a high expectations
and chronic situational
tress. -
Burnout has as its off-spring; physical depletion, feeling of helplessness,
negative self worth and negative attitude towards people involved in thework
itself. Burnout strikes most idealists, enthusiastic and highly motivated
people (employees).
Burnout victims are idealists who choose a career because it promised lifelong
satisfaction but as time goes on they realize they won’t make a lasting impact
on
the organization or leave the world a better place. Burnout stems from frustration,
god-fatherism, and inadequate authority, lack of funding, uncondusive physical
working environment, and bureaucratic red tape.
COMBATING BURNOUT
1.
Managing your
time.
2.
Get organized
3.
Analyze your
personality through seminars and workshops
4.
Keep a joy/stress
long
5.
Re-appraise your
goals
6.
Compartmentalize
your life so that you balance the energy you put into
work and non-work actions
7.
Social support
group, friends and colleagues you can share your illusion with.
8.
Limit stressful
work hours
9.
Learn to unwind,
etc.
TIME MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
From the foregoing, it is obvious that effective time
management will assist greatly in reducing some of the major factors that leads
to stress, frustration and
hypertension.
Have you ever considered the fact that 90% of the result you get in any area
of your life comes from 10% of the time you spend trying to get that result?
Transforming leaders are individuals who perfected the areas of maximally
utilizing the resources of Talents,
Treasures and Time that
are available to
them to pursue the vision they have for their organizations. Most scarce of
these three resources is Time. All
of us have 24 hours a day. Time cannot be deposited in a Bank for use at later
date. Scott once asked a patriot, “Do
you have life? Then do not squander Time, for it is the stuff that life is made
of”.
Consequently, the ability to make efficient use of this commodity plays
a crucial role in leadership effectiveness.
However, the
most mismanaged commodity in Nigeria is time, because of the intensive
interpersonal and oral nature of most interactions among Nigerians. The
tendency particularly among the most executives is to postpone important
assignment and end up rushing and
becoming irritated and over worked. The best way to get organized and reduce
the adverse effect of time is to learn the
basic tips of time management.
COMPONENT OF TIME MANAGEMENT
Two major things constitute the hub wheel of time
management:
i.
Self-management
a.
Discipline
b.
Training
ii.
Time waste, caused
by self and others.
For instance making excuses for lack of self discipline, inductiveness, perfectionism,
impatience with details, responding to the urgent things at the expense of
important, negative emotions, excessive tension, insecurity, etc.
ORGANIZATION OF TIME - MANAGING YOUR TIME AND SELF
a). Bob Shank’s
day focus system.
Habit 1 Establish clear written focus
Habit 2 - Plan your week the week before
Habit 3 - Write down every commitment at the time it is made.
Habit 4 - Record in one place all action items and follow up notes for the
People and project you manage.
b). Master the act by internalizing the 4 Cs of performance. The 4 Cs
of performance are:
1.Commitment
2.Competence
3.Confidence
4. Contingency
Commitment:
You should be proud of what you have
chosen to do. You must give it 100%
attention to do it.
Competence:
This refers to the ability to perform your job
excellently with abundance initiative, intelligence and courage, etc.
Confidence:
This is the boundary between winning and loosing. Perform your functions
without inhibition from external conflicts of uncertainty and fear.
Contingency:
Unforeseen: In our daily tasks, 3/4 of these tasks are functions of our
individual effort while ¼ is attributable to chance or luck. This is our
ability to manage or deal with the unexpected.
ANALYSIS OF TIME:
All the foregoing observations demonstrate the importance of effective time
management skills as a major
pre-requisite for executive success.
If time is life as stated earlier, then for us to know how to manage time we
need to further resolve life into its
basic components.
These include:
- Viewing
life as a sum of our activities, personal and those incidentals because we are
members of some social work groups.
- Life could be viewed as a sum of our goals, priorities and values ,Viewing
life as sum of effective and ineffective time etc.
The above approaches are relevant to our analysis because they all converge
to demonstrate that managing time
effectively means that you must do/observe the following:
i). Set and manage your priorities on short and long term effectively.
ii). Draw a plan of action for each day
iii). Share our time between seeing
people and doing the job.
iv). Aim to work on a piece of paper once
v).Learn to skim
vi). Delegate effectively
vii). Use technology where available (computer etc)
.
viii). Develop periodic list of goals and arrange them in an opportunity cost
format
ix). Do not put yourself under unnecessary pressure when you draw an action
plan.
x). Learn to say No - interruption can be the worst problem one is likely to
face in time management. Do not answer every call.
xi). Pay-off - Get into the habit of evaluating each item on your daily list on
the basis of its pay-offs. Its contribution to your goals and responsibilities.
TYPE OF TIME MANAGERS
Everybody is a time manager and we
have the following time managers:
The Willing Horse
The Procrastinator
The workaholic
The Crisis Manager
1.
The Willing Horse: - Is the worker who is always ready to say “yes” to
answer assignment given to him, he has no Zeal to say “No”. He is not a
good worker because he has the tendency
of being confused.
2. The Procrastinator: - Delays works puts off or avoid difficult
assignment. He is afraid of new situation (change) and has a tendency of
getting sick at unpleasant situation, avoids confronting others and blames
others for failure to reach his/her goals. He has a lot of goals that has not been
met in his planner book.
3. The Strategist:-Organizes self, a good time manager - plans his work
very well and works his plan, a great achiever. He is the best time manager.
4. Workaholic:-He has a strong desire to work hard, he finds it
difficult to stop working and works round the clock, and end up being
over-worked.
5 The Crisis Manager:-This worker
is always a late starter, he does not get started until the dying minutes, and
most Nigerians are crisis Managers. This is not a good time manager. You will
do well to locate where you belong among these time managers and make necessary
adjustments.
ORGANIZING YOUR WORKPLACE
Projecting an image: You can tell a great deal about the
occupant of an office
from the arrangements of items on the
desk, the use of color and the general level of tidiness.
The first impression of you is formed from the state
of your
workspace.
-Keep your desk clear of everything
-Beware of self-sticking notes. They are easily lost
-Clear up daily, never leave mess for the morning
Processing Documents
-Keep work surface as clear as
possible at all times
-Tidy desk drawers and keep them ordered.
Organizing Paperwork
-Highlight key points on paper work
to speed up re-reading
-Take time to process all incoming papers daily.
-Keep your desk clear by:
I).Note action you need to take
ii).Handle file or delegate
iii).Throw away everything else not
needed.
Organizing Workspace
-Position a clock in your office so
it is visible to you and to visitors.
-Review your filling system at least every six months.
- Arrange equipments in your office in such a way as to make more efficient
use of available space.
Organizing your filling
-Set up a filling system that will
grow with you and your business.
- Go through your files regularly, and discard documents that you no longer
need.
File papers with no obvious home in a
folder labeled miscellaneous. - File only essential documents that will be
referred to in the future.
-Break subjects down:
i). Sorting files, on the basis of need, then store them accordingly.
— ii). Label clearly, i.e by means of color or
typography.
iii). File regularly: set a regular time
for filling.
CONCLUSION
The skills for effective stress and time management are
developed over time through rugged self/discipline. Leaders who manage
themselves effectively develop subordinates who manage themselves efficiently;
the ripple effect often leads to organizational efficiency. Those executives
who really get things done don’t start with their work; they start with their
time “Peter Drucker”. Stress can only be controlled when you realize that you
could take control of work and things around you.
Time well managed is life well managed and spent in fruitful services.
Note that, whoever wasted yesterday may waste today and indeed tomorrow.
‘The choice is yours.
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