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Stress can be lethal if not brought under control. It can affect your health, well-being, relationships and employment.

Many people miss the signs when there's too much on their plate.  However, there are a number of indicators and symptoms you should recognize so that you may remain calmer and more focused at completing the task-at-hand while increasing your performance and productivity.  Be aware of high stress, anxiety, frustration, irritability, depression, or inflexibility.  Notice when you become impatient with others and respond rudely. If you find yourself making an increasing number of foolish mistakes or bad decisions, pause and shift your energy so that you alleviate negative consequences.

Recognize what you can and cannot control in your life. Let go of what you absolutely have no control over and concentrate on what you can control or at least influence or negotiate.  You can regain control in many situations by simply:

·      Rethinking the ‘shoulds’, ‘musts’, and ‘coulds’

·      Acknowledging your reality and current situation

·      Accepting your abilities and limitations. Leveraging/maximizing your strengths.

·      Having a positive can-do attitude

·      Minimizing stressors

Some stress cannot be totally eliminated and is actually effective to helping you be at the top of your game.  However,many different behaviors and attitudes help better cope with stress. My personal favorites include exercising, smiling/laughing, taking things in stride/going with the flow, breathing through difficulties (too help slow things down and stay in the moment while consciously choosing how I want to respond rather than just reacting), planning ahead and creating contingencies in case things go as unanticipated.

Other effective behaviors for coping with stress so that you can increase your productivity and contentment include:

·      Defining your limits (having realistic standards and limits)

·      Slowing down (stop hurrying)

·      Learning to deal with anger

·      Using meditation/yoga

·      Avoiding catastrophic thinking

·      Listening to calming music

·      Using imagery or daydreaming

·      Knowing your natural rhythm of when you’reat your best.

·      Scheduling your day so that you have structure

·      Paying attention to noise levels and minimizing

·      Using pent up energy wisely

·      Taking time for yourself

·      Getting off adrenaline/avoiding procrastination

·      Regrouping after stressful periods

·      Eliminating worry (87% of what we worry about never occurs or is out of our control anyway)

·      Learning to say “no”

Reduce your stress and improve your productivity!  For more stress tips, subscribe to my free bi-weekly e-newsletter at www.theprioritypro.com.

Multitasking is a cherished skill long listed in job advertisements and on resumes. However, you cannot deliver at your highest level without focusing your energies on one important thing at a time.

Here are some strategies that can boost your productivity and performance:

• Block your Time

Fully engage in the task-at-hand for a specified time allotment.  By creating time blocks you allow yourself to have razor sharp focus and you alleviate distractions. Design your time blocks to allow adequate time to complete all or a distinct piece of a task. By using one hour blocks or tying several blocks together you can gain momentum and accomplish more.

• Be Purpose-Driven

Understand the purpose of a meeting, call or task to avoid unnecessary tangents and wasted efforts. Ask questions to clarify the importance, time line, deliverables, expectations, and who else needs to be involved.

• Maximize Teamwork

Create a positive environment in the workplace that harnesses the synergy of the group. Look at things holistically.

• Simplify

Instead of trying to do everything at once, choose one defined task and do that well. You can’t possibly accomplish all of your goals simultaneously but when you focus you can accomplish one of your goals at a time. Focusing on a singular test has been scientifically proven to be more productive that trying to alternate focus between two or more tasks.

• Define Top Priorities

Everything doesn’t carry the same level of importance or urgency. Identify the ONE thing that will definitely get done each day; this is the very most important thing in your world today. Focusing on each task’s relative importance allows you to allocate your resources for maximum efficiency.

• Reorganize your Workspace

Clear a space on your desktop. Move your computer monitor and phone away from this space so that they won’t distract you. If this isn’t possible, minimize all other screens so that just the one thing you’re working on is up on the screen and turn off your email and IM alerts. Then, if you have a door, close it! If you don’t have a door, create some other means of communicating that you cannot be disturbed. Be sure everything you’ll need to complete your task is within easy reach so that you don’t need to get up to get or search for anything.

Boosting your productivity will increase your command over your workload and your sense of accomplishment when getting more done. Multitasking negatively affects your ability to focus and focus is at the core of productivity and success.  The more you focus, the more you can get done.

To boost your productivity, you may have to unlearn bad habits that have been promoted as increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Recognize how you may be preventing your own ability to focus by not eliminating distractions and interruptions. Your results are generally worse when you multitask, but in some areas they’re especially compromised, such as when you’re trying to learn a new skill. If you can’t or won’t stop multitasking, a good rule of thumb is to multitask what you want to execute, rather than absorb, and choose tasks where mistakes won’t matter.

Many ambitious high achieving professionals fear that they are not really as bright and capable as others tend to think they are. As they climb the career ladder they have apprehension and self-doubt. Although they have accomplishments, they tend to attribute these achievements to luck. All this weighs heavily on an already full plate.

Several years ago, I attended a presentation by Dr. Valerie Young about what she referred to as the “Imposter Syndrome”. It has stuck with me because I frequently come across successful business leaders who seem to be afflicted by this. As a business owner and former corporate employee, I admit to having my own demons in this area. Often when I hear feedback from a coaching client or event planner, I discount the impact that my words and strategies have made. I worry that I’m not good enough, smart enough or savvy enough to make a positive difference in people’s lives. So, despite contrary evidence to this, my complex self-doubt thinks otherwise. Insecurities can make us question ourselves and our capabilities.

Seemingly very successful business leaders at every level of the organization, entrepreneurs, rising stars worry that they’re not as great as others think they are. Although they’ve faced every challenge, received recognition and promotions, their customers think they’re a super star, they fear that they will be found out!

The imposter syndrome can hold you back from pursuing dreams and goals. It prohibits you from feeling pride and a sense of accomplishment. It can cause you to work harder than anyone else to convince yourself that if you were really as smart and capable as everyone else believes, you wouldn’t have to work so hard. The fear can be paralyzing and terrifying, if you allow it!

If you are one of the millions suffering from the imposter syndrome, there are effective ways to help you cope. Re-examine your expectations of yourself. If you tend to have perfectionist tendencies and the conviction that you shouldn’t be struggling at all, reflect on this by asking yourself ‘why’. For instance, for a client of mine who is a technical professional that will be taking a new position as an Operations Manager very soon, “why would you know how to be an exceptional Operations Manager if you’ve never done this before?” By shifting her energy away from the self-doubt caused by the Imposter Syndrome, she began focusing on what skills, knowledge, and resources she already has to build upon and what relationships are already in her network that she can expand on and learn from. She shifted from not being able to make any mistakes to minimizing mistakes and risk and using any mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. The faith and confidence her company has in her is giving her the courage to step in and be as great and capable as everyone else already thinks she is.

Stop doubting your own abilities and skills! Realize you’re not the only one that suffers from the imposter syndrome! Some experts estimate as many as 70 percent of people have this feeling of fraudulence at some point in their lives, while as many as 30 percent of people may experience it consistently.

For tips and strategies to help you deal with the Imposter Syndrome, click here.

Look around you….

Are there piles mounting, a growing to-do list, unresolved relationship issues, or cluttered cabinets, drawers and closets?

If so, tend to these before they accumulate. As they build up, they become increasingly overwhelming and time-intensive to eliminate or at least alleviate. It becomes harder to sort and de-clutter larger stacks and piles. Relationship issues tend to grow into more complicated problems when they are avoided rather than handled effectively and resolved.

Picture a plate that’s piled high with food to the point that it’s brimming over. Food is falling on the floor. Gravies and sauces are blending together to make tastes that are unpalatable. Your once enormous appetite is slowly fading to stomach pains at the thought of having to devour all this food.

This analogy is reticent of how you may be accumulating your work, issues and other activities.

Instead, focus on taking things off your plate by prioritizing and accomplishing tasks and delegating or outsourcing most others. Although you may never have a totally clean plate at the end of the day, week, month or year, by removing things from your plate you’re able to minimize the time and energy spent thinking about something or getting it done.

Too often, we allow ourselves to get distracted and off-task, especially when we have unpleasant, routine or boring tasks to complete. These tasks, like opening mail, responding to emails, filing, record-keeping, and more tend to keep piling up if not addressed in a timely manner. If you really must do these things your self (either because you have no one to delegate it to; have no budget to hire anyone; want to learn how to do it because it’s important for your professional development; or, for some other relevant reason) then, clearly define what it is you need to do. For example, rather than thinking “I need to prepare the spreadsheet”, rephrase it to “I need to gather the numbers from the other departments to input into the spreadsheet.” This clarity helps you focus on the task at-hand. Additionally, as in this example, understand how the numbers will be used, why it’s important and who will be viewing the data. Having a greater depth of understanding helps drive the importance of the different tasks on your plate vying for your time and energy. Understand what you have to gain by getting through each task, too.

Getting motivated and staying on task is important. It’s easier to get motivated to do a smaller task rather than a large task. You won’t need to set aside nearly as much time to complete smaller tasks either. The more often you do them, the easier they become because they become much more routine.

You may not accomplish everything on your plate today! However, if you more reasonably fill your plate rather than allowing things to pile on, you’ll be able to accomplish more of it without having things pile up and accumulate. Get motivated and stay on task!

Have you even been working on a project and suddenly started thinking about another project or task? Before you realize it, you jump over to that other task and then the phone rings and you’re working on something else. Then, someone drops by with a question, you get an email, and you’re now involved with multiple unfinished tasks. Later you realize that you never finished the project you began initially because you were pulled off task. You then begin to question if the task you're working on is what’s most important. Your focus and energy is scattered as you move between multiple tasks.

If this scenario (or something else quite similar) sounds familiar, you’re not alone! However, working in this fashion diminishes your ability to operate at your best. Clarity and focus provide the structure to help you increase your successes.

A client I’m currently working with is a physician who recently opened a private practice. During the last three months of working together she’s been able to limit her stress by reducing her habit of procrastinating and shifting her perspective away from perfection. It wasn’t easy but she was motivated to produce more positive energy and to feel more in control of her life.  She created more realistic standards for herself and delivery of her reports to other doctors without compromising the quality of her patient care. She established a more structured schedule of regular tasks so that she had a set time to accomplish some of the expected routine responsibilities. She’s become more organized and she protects her time from superfluous conversations and over-commitments that pull her away from her goals.  She’s learned to be more fully present and focused!

Like this client, you can learn to manage your work flow and you life more effectively. Having a good coach, consultant, counselor or therapist can be invaluable to help you gain clarity and be more confident in how you’re investing your time and energy. Having accountability to someone else, especially if you’re a sole practitioner, business owner or entrepreneur helps establish structure for sustained success.  As an employee, your priorities are normally driven by the business objectives and how your work ties into that.

Making choices is far easier when you know your priorities.  How do you set and maintain your priorities? Do you know your most important goals? How do you sort out the projects that will provide the greatest payoff? How do you prevent yourself from being pulled off task continually? How do you spend more of your time on the projects and tasks that are your top priorities?

Remember, clarity leads to power. The more clarity you have, the more powerful you feel.  When you have more focus on what matters most, you’re able to spend your time on those tasks and produce better results. 

Change is inevitable – after all, nothing really stays the same.  But in today’s challenging times, it seems like we’re on “uncertainty” overload, never knowing what will happen from one moment to the next. Here today, gone tomorrow – or, at the least, very different tomorrow.

Uncertainty bring stress and confusion, and while most of us would be quick to say that we want less stress and more certainty in our lives, what we really want is less of a stress reaction to what life is throwing our way.

We can’t choose what happens to us – but we can choose our responses to the situations we encounter.  Let’s take a look at five different responses that people have to stressful situations. As you read through these five responses, you may want to think of a recent stressful event or news that you may have received, and see what your reaction to that event can teach you about how you habitually respond.  You may have one type of response at work, and another at home, or you may react differently depending on who else is involved.

The first, and unfortunately all too common response to stressful events is to suffer and be a victim to it. People who respond this way don’t take action. Things happen TO them – and though they may complain and be generally miserable about it, they don’t take any steps to do anything. They allow life to control them, instead of the other way around. This way of responding is certainly not recommended, and eventually, it will take its toll on one’s physical and mental health.

The second type of response is to accept it the situation, and to get some perspective on it.  Someone with this response may say “so what,” or perhaps get some perspective on the situation by asking if it will it matter in a year – or a week – or even in a day.

The third way to respond is to actually take steps to change the situation – taking action to bring it to resolution (or at least move toward resolution). This is a very powerful response, and one that many effective leaders employ.

The fourth way to respond is to avoid the situation. People responding this way make a decision not to get involved in a situation that they don’t see as concerning them, or upon which they can’t make an impact. For example, someone may choose not to get involved in a dispute going on within their office if it doesn’t directly involve them.

The fifth and final way that people generally respond to stress is to alter the experience of the situation. When we look at a situation differently, the experience itself changes. Changing perceptions is probably the most challenging of the responses, because we tend to be stuck in our own interpretations and assumptions about what’s happening, but it is also perhaps the most powerful of all.

It’s your world, and you can create it as you wish. Remember, what one person sees as stressful, another person barely notices, or sees as exciting and full of opportunity. How are you going to choose today?

(This was excerpted with permission from the E Factor Newsletter January 2009 - "Handling what life throws your way" © 2009 iPEC Coaching)

Picture yourself walking through the buffet line with an abundance of choices to put on your plate. As my audiences have shared during my "There's Too Much on your Plate" program, there are many different ways to fill your plate. Some begin with the end in mind and start with dessert. Others take a little bit of everything so that they can sample whatever's available. While still others fill their plate very carefully ensuring their foods aren't touching and being sure to gather their favorites early in the meal.

How do you fill your plate?

Chances are that however you fill your plate while walking through a buffet line may be the same way you fill your plate with activities, tasks and responsibilities.

There will always be more that you can add to your plate so it's important to pace yourself whether you're eating a meal or managing the day-to-day responsibilities.

This morning I awoke to a beautiful snow fall. As I walked my dog, I delighted in the beauty of the new day and reflected on the year past as well as the year ahead. When we arrived back at home, we trounced around playing in the snow. With that burst of energy and joy I decided to shovel our front walkway.  The snow was light and fluffy so the the task felt rather effortless.  I looked up my long almost 450 feet of driveway and wondered if I could shovel the whole thing. I paced myself by completing a section at a time. When I was about 75% done, my son came out with a shovel and joined me, questioning why I was shoveling when it didn't seem that necessary.  I responded that I was enjoying the fresh air, exercise and feeling of steady accomplishment. In the end, it took about three hours to shovel the entire driveway and walkway. I didn't know what time it was nor how much time had passed. I knew that I didn't have to finish but I could choose to continue if I felt so inclined.

To look at the long driveway, or any large project or goal for that matter, as a whole may seem daunting and unachievable. However, by breaking it down and pacing myself, I enjoyed the feeling of completion.

What can you complete a piece of today to help bring you closer to completing a task?

It's not necessarily all or nothing. Pace yourself and get the momentum going. You may be surprised with the results!!

Inspiration for your SuperBusy day....

Last week I had the exciting opportunity to travel to Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando,  FL to watch my daughter and her cheer team compete in the Pop Warner National Cheer Championships.  Her team had gone from a very weak start in August to coming from .002 points away from the first place team at the Eastern Regional competition.  No one would have anticipated that this squad of 33 girls from 5th through 8th grade would be competing at the National level.

It took discipline, commitment and dedication not only on the part of the girls but their parents, coaches and most of all, the instructors.  Unlike many of the teams competing at this level, we did not have professional choreographers but local HS seniors who wrote and taught the show, then tweaked it following each competition based on the judges’ feedback.

The girls worked together but most of all, to the (sometimes) frustration of the coaches and instructors, they had fun. One of the coaches, Coach Patty, always had an inspirational message. By the end of the season, each and every girl could quote the 2-3 she used most often. The one that stuck with me is “What you put into it is what you’ll get out of it.”

How often is this true in our lives as well? Sometimes we do things half-way or incomplete; often times we don’t put our heart into what we’re doing but instead go through the routine motions to complete the task-at-hand.  The cheerleaders were constantly being told to refine their movements, sharpen their jumps, hold their stunts and articulate more loudly and clearly.  Then, when they hit the competition floor each time, it all came together with precision and pride. Although they goofed off at practice, when it mattered they always pulled it together.  My saying from my competition days as a baton twirler was, “ Practice like you will perform”.  This was rarely taken to heart but when they did, it brought tears to our eyes.

In the end, when the announcer said, FIRST PLACE, the Hillsborough Dukes, we knew that what they put into it is what they got out of it. They gained friendships, skills, sportsmanship along the way to being National Champions. The focus was on performing at their absolute best and that’s what they did!

So, what will you focus on so that you can give it your all?  When you put your best effort into the task-at-hand, what rewards will you reap??