Stress is something that we all encounter in our day-to-day lives. Unfortunately stress at work place is a very common issue that busy professionals have to increasingly deal with. Stress may help some to improve their performance or achieve more, but more often than not, stress causes more harm than good.
No matter how familiar we are with the word ‘Stress’ and no matter how many times we keep saying ‘I am feeling so stressed’, often we find it difficult to exactly identify stress as ‘STRESS’.
How then do we understand whether we are stressed or not?
Following are certain quick pointers that may enable us to adequately identify the cause of our problems as stress:
- Stress tends to make us irritable, aggressive and depressed;
- Being stressed may also make it difficult for us to concentrate and take appropriate decisions;
- Stress may also make us overly emotional and sensitive, making us prone to tears;
- Stress is also likely to induce a lot of interpersonal difficulties;
- Stress makes us over estimate danger and under estimate our coping abilities; and
- Extreme stress tends to affect us across many aspects of our lives simultaneously.
If you think you may be affected by stress, it is important that you consult a psychologist and seek expert advice. Do not take chronic stress lightly, or think that you are somehow “weak”.
However, one technique that I have often found useful in keeping stress in control, particularly for stress at work place is the SMART Strategy. The SMART strategy advocates that you set SMART goals that will help keep your goals in perspective. Let us quickly understand the SMART technique, where the acronym denotes the following:
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Achievable
R = Relevant
T = Time limited
But how do we go about setting SMART Goals?
A few questions may help us to set appropriate smart goals.
SPECIFIC:To ensure that your goals are specific, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is involved?
- What do I want to achieve?
- Where – Identify a location
- Which – Identify requirements and constraints
- Why – Identify specific reasons, purposes or benefits of accomplishing the goals
MEASURABLE:To ensure that your goals are measurable, ask yourself the following questions:
- How much, how many?
- How will I know when it is accomplished?
- How often will I assess progress?
- What are my indicators of success or progress?
ACHIEVABLE:To ensure that your goals are achievable, you may ask yourself the following questions:
- What actions should I take and in what order?
- What does each step or sub-goal involve?
- What will others notice about me as I work towards this goal?
- What do I need to start or stop doing in order to achieve this goal?
REALISTIC:To ensure that your goals are realistic, you may ask yourself the following questions:
- Does this seem worthwhile?
- What are the likely obstacles I may encounter?
- I will I deal with such obstacles?
- Does this goal really match with my needs?
- Is this goal in alignment with my other goals?
TIME LIMITED:In order to ensure that your goal is time limited, you may consider the following questions:
- What can I do today?
- What can I do 6 weeks from now?
- What can I do 6 months from now?
- What is the deadline for achieving this goal?
- How much time per day/ week/ month should I give for achieving this goal?
A goal that is NOT a SMART goal would be: I will ensure that my performance has improved. On the contrary, a SMART goal would be as follows:
Specific: I received low marks on my ability to use PowerPoint at my last performance review. Improving my skills requires that I learn how to use PowerPoint efficiently and practice using it by creating various presentations.
Measurable: By the time of my next review, which will be held 6 months from now, I should be able to create presentations that incorporate graphs, images, and other media in a couple of hours. I should also be able to efficiently use and create templates in PowerPoint that my coworkers can also use.
Achievable: Improving my PowerPoint skills is instrumental in moving forward in my career and receiving a better performance review. I can set time aside every week to watch PowerPoint tutorials and even enroll in an online class that can teach me new skills to handle stress at work place. I can also ask coworkers and my manager for PowerPoint tips.
Realistic: Working with PowerPoint is currently 25% of my job. As I move up in the company, I’ll need to spend 50% of my time creating PowerPoint presentations. I enjoy my career and want to continue to grow within this company.
Time-Bound: In six months, I should be proficient in PowerPoint ensuring it only occupies 25% of my workload instead of the nearly 40% of the time it occupies now.
I have seen over the years that as soon as a person is successful in designing the SMART goals, they generally tend to handle stress at work place better.
If you need further help or advice, give us a call. TriBeCa Care is happy to be by your side. Request a callback or Call us at + 913366064208.
Email us at enquiry@newwpsite.tribecacare.com
(This blog has been written by a registered Clinical Psychologist on the TriBeCa Care Mental Health Team.)
Image courtsey: Getty Images
