At this point, I don't think I'm experienced enough to give advice on the field of graphic design, but I did find this list of ways to deal with stress to be helpful. Sometimes we have so much information coming at us that just thinking of new ideas becomes stressful and we have to mentally restart.
1. Mind your words - Change words such as “I have to” to “I choose to.” Put yourself back in control and remove negative words such as “have to” will help you to reduce the pressure and stress level. Even the worst tasks seem better when we choose to do it instead of being forced into doing it.
2. Learn to say no - Taking up too many tasks and try to make yourself slog through a list that even superman will say no to just isn’t worth it. Learn to say no to tasks that can be done better by others and decline assisting in other tasks when you are occupied by tasks that you have not completed yet.
3. Look at the bright side - Don’t keep dwelling on how bad things are going to be. Look at the bright side of life. Dwelling in negativity will only sap your energy and demoralize you. Focus on the good things you can think of your tasks, like recognition or the sense of achievement when you completed your task.
4. Breathe deeply - Take a minute off from your work, close your eyes and breathe deeply. Do a few counts of deep breathing and see your stress level reduced almost immediately.
5. Take a walk – Get out of your chair and take a walk in a nearby garden or somewhere close to nature. Forget about your work for a moment and enjoy the nature.
6. Set realistic goals – Set goals that are able to stretch you but not enough to burn you up. Setting goals should be able to challenge you, just make sure you don’t pile unnecessary stress on yourself with unrealistic goals.
7. Ask for help – Delegate, outsource or ask a fellow colleague for help. 2 brains are better than 1 and 3 brains are better than 2. If you are running a business, it doesn’t make sense if you are running everything yourself. Outsource the non core tasks to others that have the specialize skills to do it even better than you.
8. Celebrate – Celebrate your mini milestones that you reached. Once you completed an important task, take a break from it and do a mini celebration and have a small reward for yourself. You will be more refreshed and motivated to do your next task.
9. Focus – Don’t multi task and try to do multiple things at the same time. It is unnecessary burden and most probably multi tasking doesn’t help in producing quality tasks.
10. Have a toy - Stress balls are manufactured for a reason. Yes, reducing stress! Put them at your work desk and play with them when you need it. Playing with it help to reduce anxiety and it is an excellent outlet to let go of negative energy that you had stored up.
11. Sleep – Do not sacrifice sleep to churn out more work. What is worst than working with someone who is lacking in sleep and have a bad temper. Sacrificing sleep just aggravate your stress level. Get adequate shut eye and allow your body to work in optimal condition.
12. Exercise – Stop your work and do some exercises. It help to reduce your stress remarkably when you are exercising and it helps to move your focus off your work.
13. Don’t sweat the small stuff – Sometimes a little screw up is fine and we need do not need to be stressed over it. Just let it go and try to work it out.
14. Don’t be extreme – Don’t use words like “always” or “every time.”Extreme words will cause extreme reactions that do not help the situation and it just make the matter worst. “He screws it up every time” is an example of an extreme reaction. Slow down and think, did he really screw up every time? Probably no.
15. Laugh – Too stressed up in life? Catch a comedy and laugh your heart out. Can you look at the right and the left at the same time? That is the same as being stressful while laughing at the same time. So laugh more and allow your laughter to overcome stress.
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