Idea 96: Managing your health and avoid stress

Time management has to be as much about ensuring that you maximize the amount of time you have available to use as about using time wisely. That means taking steps to ensure that you do not suffer time deprivation through illness of mind or body.

It is vital to look after your energy levels – to top up your batteries regularly – in order to fulfill your demanding role as a leader. Also, of course, you need to achieve and maintain a ‘work–life balance’ that works for you and your family, bearing in mind that nothing can change the fact that leadership – especially at the higher levels – is a very demanding job.

Research in 10 countries on 1000 managers reveals that improving time management can help eliminate the 12 most common sources of stress in managers, which are:

1. Time pressures and deadlines.
2. Work overload.
3. Inadequately trained subordinates.
4. Long working hours.
5. Attending meetings.
6. Demands of work on private and social life.
7. Keeping up with new technology.
8. Holding beliefs conflicting with those of the organization.
9. Taking work home.
10. Lack of power and influence.
11. The amount of travel required by work.
12. Doing a job below one's level of competence.

If you find yourself suffering from stress then you must:

• Do something about it: look at the stress factors and assess what can be done to change your life at work or at home.
• Express yourself: talk to people about how you are feeling and the concerns you have (even directly to a person who might be causing part of your stress).
• Evaluate priorities: check the balance of your life, take stock of activities and priorities and change them if necessary.
• Accept what you cannot control: have the courage to change the things that can be changed, the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed and the wisdom to know the difference.
• Use your negative experience to change your behaviour positively.
• Use time management skills to take charge of your time and how it is spent, particularly making time to deal with stress-causing problems. Get them out of the way.
• Count your blessings – list those things that you are pleased with, about yourself or your achievements. Do not concentrate too much on the past (guilt) or the future (anxiety).
• Ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen and can I cope with that? Use this to reduce anxiety about an issue.