I’m late in posting today. I woke up this morning and bolted upright when I realized it was Friday. I typically write in the evening, even try to get ahead sometimes but it has been a bit of a stressful week.

Not an “oh my gosh I’m going insane” stressful week but just one of those “the list seems to be piling up and I can’t keep track of it all” stressful weeks. You know, those weeks where everything seems to only be half-way finished because you’re waiting on something or someone else for information or effort and so the list just grows?

My gears tend to grind to a halt.

Speaking of grinding to a halt my computer froze and went to a black screen shortly after typing that period. It shut down long enough that I started writing again on my laptop and got through a new introduction just in time for this computer to come back on!

Chuckling, shaking my head, but happy to have it back I plugged in my iPhone to download a quick picture to add to this post. And of course iTunes tells me I need to install the latest version first.  YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT HALF FINISHED?!?!?!  Sheesh, one of those weeks.

So in the interest of coming to the aid of those of you who find yourselves mired in the midst of a similarly mind grinding week allow me to compose for you a symphony of stress reduction, in three movements.

Movement #1
The Inconvenient Truth

When the list starts to stretch out and the stress starts to pile up you need look around and determine if your environment is a contributing factor. Hint: It nearly always is.

At the left is a picture of my desk taken moments ago.  Is it any wonder I’m feeling a bit of tension sitting behind this chaos?

We tend to overlook the obvious on this one. We don’t clean it up because we have too much to do but the too much to do feels like a whole lot bigger pile when we’re sitting in a big pile. So…

If you find yourself on hold, halfway through projects waiting for input from others, clean your room. When the desk is clear the mind is too.

Movement #2
More Nike and Less McDonalds

When the list gets long we tend towards, escape, wanting to take a break, after all, we deserve one! “If I just take a minute to rest/watch a favorite show/play a video game I’ll be more relaxed and then I can get stuff done.”

Sorry, wrong move.

The problem with this approach is that the relaxation isn’t truly relaxing because the stress is still playing in the background like environmental music. Get a couple items off the list first, Just do it, THEN pause for breath.

One of my old roommates in grad school days was the consummate example of this. Vance just did things when they needed doing. If I came home from a long day and my car needed an oil change I’d ALWAYS take a break first. “I’ve been at it all day. I need a minute.” Four days later I’d be driving to work, stressed, because my car needed an oil change!

Vance on the other hand would come home from an even longer day and almost without pause change the oil in his car. The guy was ALWAYS relaxed because he ALWAYS did stuff when it needed doing.

Movement #3
Go Big or Go Home

This one is a little counter intuitive. When we have a long list of things to do that is producing stress we typically try to pick off a couple little ones to start. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing particularly if you just need to get started, however; when we start with the little things the big things loom out there like Chernabog looming over the wizard’s apprentice in Disney’s Fantasia.

Have you ever been hiking up a difficult trail and thought you were getting to the top only to find you’d reached a false summit? working our way upward through the little things can be a lot like that. It makes the task of list reduction a lot like an uphill hike.

Instead why not get a little thing done then nail a big one! JUST DO IT remember? Starting by getting a couple boulders out of the way makes the whole thing feel more like a downhill run then an uphill slog through the heat of the day.

Check your environment, pick something off the list a just do it, and if at all possible start with one of you E ticket items and you’l find your stress dropping off drastically in no time.

What others tips do you have for reducing stress? What would you add to the symphony?