This is the second of two blogs that are different from my usual approach. Instead of a single topic focus, these contain a mix of topics and tips. My last blog covered assertiveness, deadlines, feelings, and interviews. This time we look at managing stress, being messy and untidy, presenting, and public speaking, and time management.
Managing stress
The causes of stress are many, and for each person it’s different. A journalist’s deadline may fire their adrenalin, whilst to someone else it can be stressful.
Tips
- Be mindful of what you personally find stressful, and what you expect to be stressful in the coming weeks/year, to help you prepare for stressful periods
- Note down where you have stressful events/times coming up in your planner/calendar and schedule in buffers of downtime before and after them
- Use routine and patterns in your day as a counter to stress, for example, checking emails and social media at the same time, dealing with your top priority for the day.
Messy and Untidy
Whether the culprit is you or someone else in your home or office, a messy place or desk can get in the way of concentration. You can spend hours looking for things. Declan Tracy in his book Clear Your Desk estimated that people spend on average 400 days in their lifetime simply looking for things on and around their desk!
Simple Tips
- If you drop it, pick it up.
- If you take it out, (from a file, drawer, or cupboard), put it back where it came from.
- If it’s past its use, throw it out, or better, recycle it. Spend ten minutes a day over the next week getting rid of the things you don’t need, that get in the way, but might be very useful to someone else.
William Morris, the great textile designer, artist, and conservationist, had this to say: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful nor believe to be beautiful”.
Presenting and Public Speaking
People tell me either that they love it or that they hate it!
So many people have a fear of standing up before an audience.
Some nerves are to be welcomed as they drive you to prepare and stop you being complacent.
Here are 3 tips to reduce anxiety.
Tips
- Prepare early. It may mean fine tuning it nearer the time, perhaps with up-to-date information/statistics, but the longer you leave it the more the anxiety will grow. Also leaving anything to the last minute is a risk. You may be too busy the day before or not feel at your best. So do it in good time.
- Make sure the content reads logically and will be clear for people to follow. It helps to use simple, not complex sentences, that are easy on the ear.
- Do a practice run through of what you want to say, including running through your slides if you’re combining it with a presentation. Imagine you’re in the real situation and give it the energy you will give it on the day. It’s also an opportunity to time it to ensure you’re within the framework set for you.
Delivering a presentation in the knowledge that you’ve prepared well will help you feel more confident and give a more grounded performance.
Time Management
“Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you.” (Carl Sandburg, biographer, editor, journalist and poet, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes)
Tips
- Be clear about your goals, for the day, the week, the year, and your future. Rather than keeping them only in your head vying for priority, write them down and keep them in view.
- Only then can you decide your priority tasks for each day so that you don’t let other people spend your time for you and distract you from achieving what you’d like to achieve
- At the end of each day make a priority list for the next day so that the first thing you do each day is your most important task, one that will take you towards an important goal
When you review your to do list, always check there are tasks on it that relate to your goals, otherwise you will never reach them!
I hope you’ve have found some useful tips in this diverse collection of topics.
To kick-start or refresh and boost your assertiveness, together with your personal power, find out about my self-help guide. This valuable assertiveness resource helps you achieve positive change in just 21 steps.
