Time Stress

Stress - The Time Factor

As a result of my recent articles about time and the role of time management in both your private and business life it has become apparent that I cannot move on from this subject without reviewing the subject of stress and its relationship to time.

Like fear stress is the fear of something that hasn't yet happened. One could add "and probably never will". Please note the word probably, that means it is unlikely to happen but it may happen.

We could further define stress as time rushing up on us at a pace that is too fast for us to handle. There are three dimensions of time in most cultures; the past, the present and the future. Stress is suffered in the present but concerns the possibility of something happening in the future. For instance a schoolteacher has thirty five essays to mark and if those marks are not fed into the system by the end of the week it will cause repercussions. The teacher also has commitments for most of the week and is trying to mark each essay fairly when she/he can make time. By Wednesday evening only 15 essays have been marked and Friday is rushing up very fast. This creates a stress situation.

Can you see the relationship between time and stress?

The next question is obviously: "How can I avoid that potentially stressful situation?" I guess I could be facetious here and say you should have planned your time distribution better. But it is too late for that, the situation is in the present, the opportunity to organise your time is now in the past. What must be done now is alleviate the stressful situation and cease looking at 20 essays that still require marking. It is this huge pile of work that has created the situation and it will not go away. So now you must break down this mass of work into simpler, more manageable, chunks.

This can be done by re-allocating time and instead of looking at 20 essays look at 4 essays that must be marked in the next hour. Psychologically 4 is much simpler task than 20 and your brain can handle it better. At the end of the hour you simply re-assess you time - 20 is now down to 16. You can now decide if you can find another hour to mark four more essays, or half an hour to mark two.

You will be amazed at how soon stress disappears and is replaced by a calm, orderly process of life. This system works if you are learning to run an online business or any aspect of your life.

Know thine enemy and you will better know thyself.

Article by Davmac of http://www.ayecasher.com/

Copyright © JEM Trust 2008.