It’s Saturday night.
You’ve been spending the weekend relaxing with your friends and family, and have been telling yourself that you already know what you’re going to write for the essay due at the end of Sunday.
But it’s 10pm, and you’re struggling to come up with enough arguments to fill the word limit and to hopefully get a good mark in the end.
This is just one place where stress attacks us. But once you get over one stressful period, another one will arise and after that, another, another and… another.
New essays, new deadlines, even every new day can create stress in one form or another. And this is why, we need to redefine stress.
It is essential to use stress to our advantage and find ways to channel it into doing something productive.
So here are 5 steps to make stress your best friend and use it to bring the best out in you.
1. Stop and remove yourself and your feelings as much as you can from the situation.
Let’s use the example of a student struggling to start an essay which is due the next day.
Rather than stressing out and becoming frustrated and worried about the situation, take yourself out of the situation.
Remove your emotions as much as you can, and try to think about it with a clear mind.
Already you’ll start to feel calmer, and your mind will be able to function easier as you assess the situation.
The 5 minute productivity hack might be a good thing for you to look into if you’re the type of person that stresses out.
While this hack focusses primarily on increasing your productivity levels, it can easily be used as a strategy to eliminate procrastination and stress and get started with work.
2. Look at the problem from an objective point of view
Evaluate the situation and break it down into a set of problems. For example, if I were the student I’d break it down to:
a)I still have to finish the plan
b) I haven’t started the essay yet
c) It’s due tomorrow
d) It’s 2000 words long
Now you’ve got a set of tasks that you can tackle and that will help you reach the final outcome of submitting the essay.
You can then think about the different things you will do to complete these.
3. Create strategies to use this stress to your advantage and figure out the next steps
Looking at your tasks, create some solutions for each of them:
a) I will complete the plan now – solution to ‘I still have to finish the plan’
b) As soon as I create the plan, I will immediately start writing the essay – solution to ‘I haven’t started the essay yet’
c) I will create a timed schedule for the different parts of the essay I will write (e.g. it will take me one hour to write the introduction, two hours to write the first argument etc. OR the introduction is 300 words; the first argument will be about 700 words etc.) – solution to ‘it’s due tomorrow
d) When I work on my plan I will make sure that I have enough arguments that will reach the word count – solution to ‘it’s 2000 words long’
So as you can see, we have created for ourselves some action steps in order to combat our problems.
Already, you’ll start feeling less stressed and even a little confident as you have some achievable things to do that will lead you to your final goal.
4. Realise that stressing out will not help you
This is a crucial step to using stress to your advantage.
But before this, having a solid morning routine that sets you up for the day is ideal when having stress-filled days like this.
I list some realistic morning routine tips in this post that will not only get you ready for the day but get that productivity pump going for you to tackle those daunting tasks. But back to point 4!
It is the beginning of forming this 5 step process into a habit, and will over time solidify how you handle stress effectively to finish the work that you need to complete.
Now that you have stopped and thought about this stressful situation from an objective point of view, figured out the issues that are causing you to feel stress and also created accompanying solutions, you will start to feel more confident.
You have created an effective solution for your stress, and you have an action plan ready to successfully complete the daunting problem that was troubling you earlier.
This moment is an empowering feeling and the first time you experience it will transform the way you feel about stress.
Remember this feeling, and the next time you encounter a stressful period, remind yourself of this confidence and then push yourself to carry out these 5 steps.
You are now ready to tackle the stress head on and get stuck into the work (good luck with that essay lol).
5. Do this again, and hone in your process
The final step is to do this all over again!
The truth is, stress will never leave us. It will come back with its soul-crushing, heart-plummeting, palm-sweating grip and there’s nothing we can do about stopping it.
The best thing to do would be to learn how to use it well.
And in order to hone in your learning, you need to continuously carry out these 5 steps and strengthen your resolve against stress.
Practice makes perfect, and over time you may find that rather than stress creating a daunting situation it instead creates a space that motivates you and pushes you to reach your full potential.
The next time you feel stressed out, take a minute (or ten seconds if you’re that stressed) and take yourself out of the situation.
Remember, that only you are in control of how you’re feeling right now.
Understand the stress for a moment; why are you feeling this way right now? What is the best thing for you to do?
Hopefully, with a more focussed and calm mind you can organise your next steps which will either alleviate the stress slightly, or allow you to control what you are going to do with this adrenaline rush.
Feel the stress, the panic, but understand that you are in control and that everything will be okay.
This 5-step process can be used in other situations as well; for example, if you’re feeling anxious about a situation, or your just feeling anxious and down for no apparent reason, take yourself out from the space and find the things that are causing you worry and then create solutions for them.
I really hate the feeling of when I’m stressed; that sickly end-of-the-world feeling that starts in your chest and drops to the depths of your stomach.
But, if we can’t control stress, the best thing to do is to control the way we feel before it and whilst we’re in it.
