Situational stress often results from feeling like we don’t have enough time to accomplish all we need to in a given day.  In many cases situational stress is not a lack of time that is the problem, God is fair to everyone by giving 24 hours a day to everyone, it is rather poor time management skills that cause us this situational stress dilemma.

Time management

Time management means different things to different people. For some, it will be something as simple as making lists of “things to do”. Prioritizing your “To do” tasks mean one has to prioritize and do first thing first. However sometimes one may have the intention of multitasking so that they could finish multiple tasks at the same time. If you have such intention then firstly you must understand if you are capable of doing so.

Effective time management means organize and execute around priorities. Below are the simple 5 steps for your reference in prioritizing your tasks :

1. Preparing a time chart including these fields : Tasks, Deadline, Key person who can team up : each person’s capability and scope, time frame, Budget resources, Obstacles that can be foreseen, Consequences of incompleteness.
2. Rate the urgency of each tasks basing on the above elements.
3. Frequent discussion with your superior and subordinate.
4. Frequent revision on the time chart.
5. Put a “check” on the task completed, by doing so the sense of fruitfulness may give you more encouragement to move forward.

Delegate responsibilities

Managing people means get things done through people. People with perfectionist tendencies have trouble delegating work. They have the attitude that, “If I want it done right, I have to do it myself”. They fear that by letting someone else help them with  a given task, that they are losing control and that something will probably go wrong. We need to learn that there is more than just “my way” of doing things.

Learning to delegate responsibilities when they become overwhembling, will help you build more trusting relationships and will relieve your burden of too many stressors. If you aim to climbing up the career ladder, the technique of delegating responsibilities is even more essential. If you find it hard to delegate, you may try it but monitor the task and get feedback closely, when you slowly build up your confidence on your counterpart, then follow by delegating more responsibilities.

Back to main page…

Try the following approaches to deal with stress arisen from the surroundings and situation.

Consider make changes in your surroundings - find out the situational stressors

If you suffering from headache, check if it is a situational stress as a result of reading under poor light, move to another room where the lighting is better. Make a careful survey of the places where you spend a good deal of your time, your study place at home or your workplace for example. Changing your surroundings can mean turning on lights, turning off loud music or raising or lowering your computer chair. Check your surroundings carefully for potential situational stressors.

Tactfully and caringly communicate

Learn how to communicate with those whom you are having problems. Sometimes other people cause your situational stress. This is a more complicated potential source of stress. Whenever there are problems, you owe it to yourself and to the other person to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the problem. This involves communication in a caring and tactful way. Dealing with a situational stress resulting from interpersonal relationship is not easy but it is unavoidable.

Learn when and how to say “No”

Accepting too many responsibilities could be one of the reason for causing situational stress. Some people have a habit of always saying “Yes” to requests for help by others. Sooner or later they are not only have all their own problems and responsibilities to attend to but they have everyone else’s problem too! Knowing your own limits and constraints and learn when you have reached them. Then next step is to practice saying “No”.
Always bear in mind, your own health is your first priority. You are of little use to others if you are not healthy, never let situational stress to hinder your health.

Back to main page…

There are many different ways that stress can be categorized. The three categories discussed below are just suggestions as to how you might view the sources of stress in your life. The important thing is whether your most common stressors would fall into any of the categories discussed below. If so, you will find several coping methods, which will be outlined later, that will be based on these categories of stress.

Situational Stress

Situational stress is caused by situational stressors in your immediate environment. An example wold be sitting in an airplane as it is taxing the runway for takeoff. You may be sitting, clutching the arm rests and hoping that you won’t need to use the emergency instructions that the stewardess has just explained to you.

Your work environment, while you are working, is considered a situational stress. You are running back and forth, dealing with customers, counting change, answering phones, etc. When your workplace is real busy, you may experience a high level of situational stress. If your workplace is always busy, you may need some coping methods to help you function at high levels with the lowest possible negative reactions to the continual stress.

Body Stress

Body stress is stress that results in overt physical symptoms. Examples include abuse, such as consuming too much alcohol, abusing drugs, or exercising too much. On the other hand, some people neglect their bodies by not getting enough sleep or proper nutrition.

Many people view it as a simple hangover, but drinking too much alcohol is a stress to the body. It reduces the amount of REM or dream sleep that you experience and results in a series of problematic symptoms such as headache, fatigue and inability to concentrate. This is an example of body stress that is caused by abuse of alcohol. What is the solution to this kind of stressor? Not too much can be done about an aggressive hangover except to wait out the symptoms. The more serious problem facing you would be to ensure that this type of abuse does not become a regular feature of your life. Often, body stress is related to other sources of stress. For example, the reason that one abuses alcohol may very well have to do with stresses at work or with relationships. So, the abuse of alcohol and resulting body stress is really tied to a deteriorating relationship. In this case, your body stress is your first clue to look for other stress-related problems.

Mind Stress

Mind stress is caused by negatively perceiving life events. Some people have a tendency to exaggerate problems or even invent problems that don’t exist. We sometimes say that these people make “mountains out of molehills”. Try to catch yourself being pessimistic, taking things personally or jumping to conclusions.

Read more »