Making A Stress Management Plan
So far in this section, we have looked at the Schedule of Recent Experience, Stress Diaries and Stress SWOT.
In this article, we use the self-knowledge you have gained with these techniques to think about how you can manage stress. By making a stress management plan, you can focus your attention on the most serious sources of stress in your life, so that you can work on bringing these under control.
Introducing Your Stress Management Plan
The diagram below shows the stages of the stress management planning process:
We looked at the first stage of this process in our articles on the Schedule of Recent Experience, Stress Diaries and Stress SWOT. If you have used the tools we discussed, you should already have a good idea of the most important sources of stress in your life.
List and Prioritize the Sources of Stress In Your Life
The next step is to prioritize these sources of stress so that you can separate the important stressors that must be dealt with from the minor, infrequent irritations that do not need as much attention.
Start by writing down a list of the sources of stress that you identified with the Schedule of Recent Experience. To this list, add the most frequent and serious sources of stress you identified with your Stress Diary. Finally, add the weaknesses and threats you identified with Stress SWOT.
Review this consolidated list and redraft it in order with the most important things at the top. The items at the top of the list should be the most important for you to resolve, while the ones at the bottom of the list can wait until you have the time to deal with them.
Tip:
If you create this list using a spreadsheet, it will be much easier to sort the list into the correct order without a lot of tedious redrafting.
Once you have done this, the next step is to think about how to deal with each source of stress.
Work out How to Target Each Source of Stress
A good way of doing this is to work through the most important stressors on your list one-by-one. For each source of stress, work through the Stress Key. This will help you find the techniques that are most relevant.
Also, think about what you learned about yourself when you used Stress SWOT Analysis. As part of this, you may have identified people or resources that can help you in managing stress – co-workers, friends, mentors, team members or many other people, or additional resource. Make sure that you make appropriate use of all of the help, skills and resources that you have access to. Also, make a note of the skills that you need to acquire to manage stress effectively.
And then think through for yourself whether these are the most effective techniques or skills to use, or whether others may be more appropriate.
Bringing This Together: Your Stress Management Plan
Then, based on this, write down what you are going to do to manage each of the important sources of stress that you have identified. This is your Stress Management Plan.
As you create your plan, make sure that you do not over-stretch yourself: The last thing you want is to get stressed-out by failing to meet the timetable of your stress management plan!
Next, make entries into your diary reminding you to review your plan, and keep it fresh in your mind.
With your plan, you should now have a good idea of what you have to do to manage the stress in your life. All you now have to do is implement this plan!
So far in this section, we have looked at the Schedule of Recent Experience, Stress Diaries and Stress SWOT.
In this article, we use the self-knowledge you have gained with these techniques to think about how you can manage stress. By making a stress management plan, you can focus your attention on the most serious sources of stress in your life, so that you can work on bringing these under control.
Introducing Your Stress Management Plan
The diagram below shows the stages of the stress management planning process:
We looked at the first stage of this process in our articles on the Schedule of Recent Experience, Stress Diaries and Stress SWOT. If you have used the tools we discussed, you should already have a good idea of the most important sources of stress in your life.
List and Prioritize the Sources of Stress In Your Life
The next step is to prioritize these sources of stress so that you can separate the important stressors that must be dealt with from the minor, infrequent irritations that do not need as much attention.
Start by writing down a list of the sources of stress that you identified with the Schedule of Recent Experience. To this list, add the most frequent and serious sources of stress you identified with your Stress Diary. Finally, add the weaknesses and threats you identified with Stress SWOT.
Review this consolidated list and redraft it in order with the most important things at the top. The items at the top of the list should be the most important for you to resolve, while the ones at the bottom of the list can wait until you have the time to deal with them.
Tip:
If you create this list using a spreadsheet, it will be much easier to sort the list into the correct order without a lot of tedious redrafting.
Once you have done this, the next step is to think about how to deal with each source of stress.
Work out How to Target Each Source of Stress
A good way of doing this is to work through the most important stressors on your list one-by-one. For each source of stress, work through the Stress Key. This will help you find the techniques that are most relevant.
Also, think about what you learned about yourself when you used Stress SWOT Analysis. As part of this, you may have identified people or resources that can help you in managing stress – co-workers, friends, mentors, team members or many other people, or additional resource. Make sure that you make appropriate use of all of the help, skills and resources that you have access to. Also, make a note of the skills that you need to acquire to manage stress effectively.
And then think through for yourself whether these are the most effective techniques or skills to use, or whether others may be more appropriate.
Bringing This Together: Your Stress Management Plan
Then, based on this, write down what you are going to do to manage each of the important sources of stress that you have identified. This is your Stress Management Plan.
As you create your plan, make sure that you do not over-stretch yourself: The last thing you want is to get stressed-out by failing to meet the timetable of your stress management plan!
Next, make entries into your diary reminding you to review your plan, and keep it fresh in your mind.
With your plan, you should now have a good idea of what you have to do to manage the stress in your life. All you now have to do is implement this plan!
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