When the word “Entrepreneur” is mentioned, people start to think of flashy cars, big houses, and a luxurious lifestyle. They forget that behind the scenes is a lot of emotions – enthusiasm, passion, fear, doubt, name em… and STRESS.
Stress is quite inevitable for Entrepreneurs.
If it’s not properly handled, it can negatively affect your business and extensively, your life in general.
One superpower every Entrepreneur should have is the ability to handle stress – stress management
Stress Management is a set of techniques intended to help people deal more effectively with stress in their lives by identifying the specific stressors and taking positive actions to minimise their effects.
Thankfully, this superpower can be learnt.
And when it comes to learning this superpower, the first thing you must do (as the definition of stress management implies) is to discover the things that trigger stress for you and tweak it to help you cope with the stress.
Asides from that, here are some simple but effective hacks you can use to manage stress:
Top 10 Methods Used in Dealing With Stress And Handling Pressure.
1. Practice Self Care.
Taking care of yourself physically and mentally is one of the most important things you need to do to easily build resilience against stress
For the sake of your mental health – stop worrying about the future, practice meditation, set boundaries between work and personal life, have healthy social relationships, develop a positive attitude towards work, etc.
For the sake of your physical health – work out the stress, eat less junk and more healthy foods, drink lots of water and get the right amounts of sleep daily.
Remember that investing in yourself will always yield 101% ROI.
2. Write It Down.
Relying on your brain to remember all your goals, tasks events, etc. can be disorganising and frustrating especially when you don’t remember all the plans you made in your head (and you definitely won’t)
This can eventually make you feel stressed.
Make writing things down a habit… You can create a journal where you plan for future tasks and events.
Writing down stuff helps reduce the level of stress that can be caused by overloading your memory.
When you make writing things down a habit, your memory slowly starts to improve and increase your productivity levels too.
3. Talk To Someone.
If your stress levels start to seem like it’s over the roof, you might want to seek help from someone close to you, or a professional coach that can teach you how to keep going under pressure, and how to be more organised and keep stress at bay.
4. Build & Balance Your Work and Personal Life.
Being a workaholic can make you feel very stressed and this can even lead to burnout.
To manage stress, it is very important to have a satisfactory level of balance between work and personal life as this can help keep stress at bay most of the time.
Take out more time to do the things you love outside work and to spend time with the people you love.
Having a healthy social life can help you manage stress more effectively.
5. Declutter Your Environment.
Physically and mentally, working in a space with too much stuff (clutter) can reduce your productivity and increase your chances of feeling stressed out.
Clean up your home and your workspace. Doing this has a way of decluttering your mind in the process.
Learn to keep your environment clean at all times, this helps to eliminate distractions.
Eliminating distractions means you work more efficiently and get things done before deadlines.
Getting stuff done before deadlines means less stress for you, YaY!
Related: Productivity 101: How Being Organised Can Boost Your Productivity
6. Don’t Make Stress Part Of Your Business Model.
Build a business model that can survive without you as you’re progressing.
You can’t be actively involved in all the areas of your business at once. Attempting to do this can stress you and can be detrimental to your overall health.
Outsource some of your work to other competent persons and if need be, automate the parts of your business that do not necessarily need human personnel to function properly.
While you make money, use some parts of it to get rid of stress.
7. Understand And Utilise Your Energy Levels.
Understanding your energy levels can increase your productivity and work efficiency.
It is important to know when you have the most energy so that you can allocate this time to the most important tasks. Its important to also know when you have the least energy, so you can carry out the minor/less demanding tasks.
It’s also good to know when you have no energy at all, so you can carry out tasks to recharge your energy tanks as well
Study and understand your energy levels to get the best out of your work.
8. Learn to Easily Forgive/Reward Yourself.
Whenever you hit a particular milestone or achieve a certain goal, learn to reward yourself for it.
Doing this gets rid of all the difficulties you went through while trying to achieve your goal.
There are different ways to reward yourself, check out a few by clicking here.
On the other hand, if you don’t reach your goals before the set deadline, that’s also okay.
Things like this happen sometimes and for different reasons.
Instead of beating yourself up (this increases the release of cortisol in your brain which causes you to feel stressed)
Forgive yourself and move on to reach your next goal as soon as possible.
Don’t dwell on your shortcomings for too long.
9. Get a Good Grip on Your Finances.
It is very easy to become stressed when everything isn’t going as planned with your finances – having pending bills to take care of, and other financial responsibilities.
When the amount of money you’re getting isn’t enough to cater to all your financial needs, it can cause high levels of stress on your mind.
To avoid this, learn financial literacy.
Learn how to manage your finances the right way so you can have a better grip on them and avoid making bill payments a stress trigger.
Conclusion..
Stress is very common. To some entrepreneurs, it’s a daily occurrence and it doesn’t have to be this way all the time.
By developing the superpower called stress management using the hacks above, you can have stress-free days and handle stress better whenever you’re faced with stressful situations.
Is there an effective stress management technique you’d like to share so we can try it out? I’d love to experiment it!