The Busy Season
There are times in life when you may feel it necessary to put your work life balance on hold and work through weekends and evenings to achieve your goals. At this point in your working life, being told to ‘take it easy’ and ‘make sure you get enough sleep’ is not particularly helpful. Practical tips for surviving and thriving would be much more welcome.
Here are some to get you through those busy periods:
Use Premack’s principle; put simply this means reward yourself for completing a demanding task with something more low-key but still necessary. This will aid the ebb and flow of your activity and ensure you get regular breaks. You could compare this to taking a break from running by walking rather than stopping.
Compartmentalize; tasks that you may usually enjoy can become unpleasant if you are mentally elsewhere while completing them. Allow yourself to put one thing to bed while you concentrate on another.
Save time for rest, however little; while you’re waiting in a supermarket queue or in the five minutes before a meeting starts it can be tempting to cram in checking your emails or looking at your to-do list. Don’t! drop your shoulders and breathe, even if just for a few seconds or minutes.
If you can think of other ways to reduce daily stress during particularly busy times, share them with your colleagues and support their own mental well-being as well as your own.
