It's A Juggle Out There
by Janet E. Lapp, Ph.D.

Feeling a little stressed? You aren't alone. If you have two or more of the following symptoms, you may need to read this article.

• Can't get to sleep, or wake up frequently during the night.
• Worry more than before.
• Feel exhausted by the end of the day.
• Spend more time at work, and less with your family.
• Neck or shoulder tension, or other minor physical symptoms.
• Feel overwhelmed, and have too much to do.
• Lose patience more easily than before.

With increased work loads and responsibilities, everyday life for the modern manager can be an endless juggling and balancing act. Life has become more stressful. In a recent Change Central survey of 128 mid-level managers cited the following stressors:

• Keeping up with, and organizing, information.
• Responding to increased demands of employees and senior management.

Although the best response to these stressors may be to juggle fewer balls, you can't always cut down on what you do. You can, however, trick your stress alarm system into thinking you are doing less. Because real stress management is an inside job, this article will give you tips to reduce those top stressors.

1. Reduce junk input. According to Jeff Davidson in Breathing Space (MultiMedia, 1991) , the sheer volume of information being published is a major cause of pressure. One edition of the Sunday New York Times contains more information than the typical 1895 adult was exposed to during his or her entire life. More books and articles are published in one day than any of us could read comfortably during the rest of our lives. The pressure to keep up with everything may entice us to let in a steady stream of junk information just because "we don't want to miss anything."

• Don't let information invade you if it doesn't immediately relate to you, your family, or your community. Turn off background TV or radio. Avoid regular viewing of short-segment TV such as CNN. Get yourself off junk-mail lists. Ask yourself "Do I really need to know this?”

• The romantic notion that clutter is the sign of a creative mind is just that— romantic. Get rid of physical clutter, and don't stop with your desk. . If you dust it or insure it, consider letting it go. Clear out closets and drawers. Throw out the old newspapers and magazines you haven't gotten around to reading. About 75 percent of your four-drawer 18,000 paper filing cabinets can be thrown away. Clutter is registered on your retina as an enormous amount of overload information. Trick your brain into thinking you're in control by cutting it out. Besides, the Law of Clearing dictates that new and better information and materials will not enter in until you release the old.

2. Learn how to say no. With increasing time demands, most of us cannot handle all the obligations we could even a year ago. Because we all want to be seen as helpful and competent, and because most of us try to avoid conflict, we tend to say yes when we need to say no. When this happens, we struggle through, doing a half-baked job, wearing ourselves out, doing nothing else well, and resenting the person who asked us. There is a universal software that recognizes only 100% effort. So if we're overstretched, with the result that everything we do is at 50-75% quality and effort, the universe doesn't even recognize it. We may as well not do it. Those surveyed reported that it is not easy to say no to a senior VP who may not understand day-to-day demands. Those who were able to say no, however, and clearly explain why, reported significantly lower stress levels. Saying no politely, yet firmly, to a request that is inappropriate or unhealthy is the only reasonable response.

• When a request comes in, ask for time to consider.
• After you have carefully lined the request up with your vision, goals, and other demands, say yes if it is in line. If it is not, say no clearly by saying something such as: "I would like to help you out. However, I'm not able to handle it well given other demands on my time. Let's see if we can't work out another solution."

Customize your own version of this response for each request, but do increase your ability to say no. The most important consequence is that your nervous system will get the message that you have some control over what happens to you.

3. Create space for synthesis. Habit seven of Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People is the principle of 'Sharpening the Saw,' or balanced self-renewal. Many of us spend our day sawing with a dull saw, when a short break to sharpen our saws would triple our productivity.

The regular practices of physical exercise, education, spiritual practice, and family time are often more productive than time spent at the office. In addition, when information is crowded into our brains without time for synthesis, we may as well not have received it at all.

Research has shown that when information is taken in without regular breaks, very little is retained. When the same information is studied with regularly spaced breaks, recall performance is significantly higher. Time is needed for information to become knowledge.

• Whether or not you think you have time, ink into your schedule a half-hour of quiet time a day, and a half day of quiet time each week, to let your mind absorb what it has taken in.

• Schedule time for regular saw-sharpening activities, or, activities that energize you. Although you will tell yourself that you "don't have time” in fact, you will have twice as much time to accomplish what you need when your saw is sharper.

4. "Rubber-band" your mind. When change occurs rapidly, our brains are tricked into thinking we're under attack and we scan for danger. Without regular rubber-band mental workouts, our brain lacks the elasticity of returning to the present. We absorb unneeded information, take on too much, with worry as a natural result. "Worrying too much" was ranked as the number one symptom of too much stress by those in our survey.

The most important step toward worry control is to mentally rubberized our minds. The following exercise, originally developed by Thomas Borkovec, Ph.D. of the University of Pennsylvania, helps to discipline worry. Following are the four simple steps to take:

• Notice when your worry comes. Don't try to just forget it. That doesn't work.
• Set aside an uninterrupted 20 minutes of dedicated worry time every day.
• At that time, do nothing else. Think only about your worry. After awhile, your mind will wander naturally. This natural process helps worry and resentment lose their grip.
• Practice daily until your mental elastic keeps you focused on what's at hand.

This process tricks your stress alarm system into thinking you can handle whatever is happening now . . . which you always can!

So when you can't remember your own phone number or a familiar employee's name, it doesn't mean you're headed for a breakdown. It simply means your brain is on normal overflow and you have too many balls in the air. Trick your brain into thinking you are in control by reducing junk input, learning to say no, creating space for synthesis, and rubber-banding your mind. You'll not only see results in just a few days, but may soon find that you've become a master juggler.

© 2001-2004 Janet E. Lapp, Ph.D. All rights reserved. Dr. Janet Lapp is an expert at guiding organizations through change. She is the author of Plant your Feet Firmly in Mid-Air, publisher of The Change Letter and one of North America's most energizing and insightful professional speakers. For more information please contact your speakers bureau.