How to manage stress.
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:48 pm
Stress Relievers for Consultants.
1. Try to eat and sleep at the same time everyday.
2. Try to not think about work before sleeping or during eating. The stress was so bad at one project we had a rule that if you talked about work during lunch then you bought everyone's lunch.
3. Breathe. Take a breath instead of reacting immediately to some crisis.
4. Take care of your self. Try to exercise.
5. Try to stay calm. Be angry and sin not. Anger is okay but try not to punish everyone who has made you angry.
6. Mood swings are not good for the team or yourself. Even tempered is better for yourself than any company or project.
7. Take time to slow down after a major deliverable.
8. Celebrate a good deliverable.
9. If management is crashing down on you then try not to pass it on to the rest of the team. Share some things but not the bad things.
10. Watch what you say and unto whom. You can share wisdom or mentor but you can make a bad situation worse by sharing too much.
11. Try not to do it all yourself. Mentoring is a better long-term solution.
12. Delegate and trust someone. Try to hold them accountable so stress is spread across the whole team. If you try to break ten sticks then it is a lot easier to break them one at a time. To break them all in one break takes a lot more pressure. Pressure is another word for stress.
13. Try not to change the whole team in one day. Expect it to take a while. You need allies to change bad momentum to good. If your team is moving in the wrong direction then it takes a while to turn the bus around.
14. Try not to throw people in front of the bus or allow others to be thrown in front of the bus. Do not participate in the blame game.
15. Protect yourself by documenting what was said in private in an email. State what was said and say you are just trying to confirm what was expected. Copy your boss or someone else to prove what was said. Clear definitions are a safe way to avoid the blame game.
16. If someone is unreasonable then weigh the situation. Your health worth risking for a situation you may not be able to change.
17. All jobs have stress.
18. The bigger the risk the more the stress.
19. Manage expectations. If expectations are not reasonable then you might not be able to change them until the next deliverable. Knowledge and experience in estimating helps. If estimates continue to be low then double or triple the next deliverable estimate. This will protect you until you can make the team more efficient.
20. Understand the talent on your team. Estimate their skill level against what the deliverable requires. Expand estimates based on skill to requirement. Use the best or most experienced for the requirement.
21. Challenge your team to learn new skills during slow times.
22. Cross train. Skills transfer means stress is being spread across the whole team.
23. Keep all team members busy. A few team members doing most of the work because the work was not spread out is not good.
24. Hope for the best. Plan for the unexpected and trust your team.
25. Decide to be happy and life is more than your job but if you can be happy for 8 hours a day then outside work can be really enjoyable.
26. Understand who to trust. Who has the most to loose. You need allies make sure you trust the right people.
1. Try to eat and sleep at the same time everyday.
2. Try to not think about work before sleeping or during eating. The stress was so bad at one project we had a rule that if you talked about work during lunch then you bought everyone's lunch.
3. Breathe. Take a breath instead of reacting immediately to some crisis.
4. Take care of your self. Try to exercise.
5. Try to stay calm. Be angry and sin not. Anger is okay but try not to punish everyone who has made you angry.
6. Mood swings are not good for the team or yourself. Even tempered is better for yourself than any company or project.
7. Take time to slow down after a major deliverable.
8. Celebrate a good deliverable.
9. If management is crashing down on you then try not to pass it on to the rest of the team. Share some things but not the bad things.
10. Watch what you say and unto whom. You can share wisdom or mentor but you can make a bad situation worse by sharing too much.
11. Try not to do it all yourself. Mentoring is a better long-term solution.
12. Delegate and trust someone. Try to hold them accountable so stress is spread across the whole team. If you try to break ten sticks then it is a lot easier to break them one at a time. To break them all in one break takes a lot more pressure. Pressure is another word for stress.
13. Try not to change the whole team in one day. Expect it to take a while. You need allies to change bad momentum to good. If your team is moving in the wrong direction then it takes a while to turn the bus around.
14. Try not to throw people in front of the bus or allow others to be thrown in front of the bus. Do not participate in the blame game.
15. Protect yourself by documenting what was said in private in an email. State what was said and say you are just trying to confirm what was expected. Copy your boss or someone else to prove what was said. Clear definitions are a safe way to avoid the blame game.
16. If someone is unreasonable then weigh the situation. Your health worth risking for a situation you may not be able to change.
17. All jobs have stress.
18. The bigger the risk the more the stress.
19. Manage expectations. If expectations are not reasonable then you might not be able to change them until the next deliverable. Knowledge and experience in estimating helps. If estimates continue to be low then double or triple the next deliverable estimate. This will protect you until you can make the team more efficient.
20. Understand the talent on your team. Estimate their skill level against what the deliverable requires. Expand estimates based on skill to requirement. Use the best or most experienced for the requirement.
21. Challenge your team to learn new skills during slow times.
22. Cross train. Skills transfer means stress is being spread across the whole team.
23. Keep all team members busy. A few team members doing most of the work because the work was not spread out is not good.
24. Hope for the best. Plan for the unexpected and trust your team.
25. Decide to be happy and life is more than your job but if you can be happy for 8 hours a day then outside work can be really enjoyable.
26. Understand who to trust. Who has the most to loose. You need allies make sure you trust the right people.