A stressful project - how do u manage your cool?

From the past year or so, work for me has been extremely hectic and at the same extremely stressful in terms of meeting milestones, delivery, deployments and to add all of above, DEAL WITH CHANGE! Finally after one year of slogging out, would ike to specifically share my experience.

Stay focused on one project at a time - Most of the time, I have several things that I am trying to do at once. I could be writing an email and at the same time I am thinking about an upcoming meeting. This split distraction puts strain on my focus and affects the quality of my work.

Depending on the task, I may set the timer for 30 minutes and try to knock the work out in that time frame. If I need more time, I let the timer beep at me and then I reset it for the appropriate amount of time. This allows me to focus on this one task.

Break the project down into tiny chunks - There are days when I feel that the length of tasks in my list would scare the hell out of someone! And then instead of getting the whole stuff done, my brain often shuts down in response to the overwhelming list. One thing that does help me is take a quick quick round outside my office and gulp in lots of water! I then break down my first big task into twenty minute chunks. When the project seems more manageable, I pick an easier 20 minute chunk and accomplish it. By doing this I boost my confidence and get my emotions back into a positive state.

Take a weird break - When I say weird, I mean here do something that you have never done before like pull someone leg, go for a walk, play TT, etc. There are so many ways we can pull ourselves out of a stressful state if we just take a moment to be creative.

Work for yourself - Many a times, when the project is too long, half way through I loose the motivation to accomplish the same. Then I try to figure of if the company's goals are aligned to my need. A constant watch at the same helps me not deviate and keeps me motivated.

Think only about the positives - I am sure it is much easier said than done but when going through a stressful phase, try to think about the positives and review them. By shifting my perspective to the positive, I’m able to let go of my negative thinking cycle and realign myself with the good things in my life.

Cope up with change as fast as possible - A change of any form like people leaving, organizational structure change, etc also adds to the stress levels. The best way to deal with this is to accept the change as soon as possible. This makes sure that it pinches you less and hence less stress.

And I personally believe that most of the work happiness comes from our relationship with ourselves!