Tips for Working Under Stress

Your work environment may not be ideal. In fact, as more and more people work from home or take their work on the road, the more likely it is that a person will wind up somewhere full of distractions, stress and more. Here are some solutions that may let you work even under stress:

1. Headphones Are Your Friend
If you can at least block out distracting sounds, you’ll have a much easier time of getting your work done. For most people, noise cancellation is much more important than just masking noise with other noise. White noise or nature sounds may provide you with a better work environment.

2. Take Regular Breaks
Working on a laptop or typing on a Blackberry is physically exhausting -- there just aren’t a lot of ergonomic options. If you can take a break at least once every hour and just move around a little bit, you’ll find that you can work more comfortably.

3. Breathe Deep
If you meditate, now might just be the time for some of that calm you’ve been cultivating. Even a few deep breaths can cut through the stress and let you concentrate on your work.

4. Ask for Consideration
If you need peace and quiet, there’s nothing wrong with asking for it. The worst that could happen is that you’ll be turned down and the situation won’t change.

5. Eliminate the Distractions You Do Control
Taking steps to reduce small distractions you can control -- like turning off your cell phone -- can help you handle the big ones a little better.

6. Break Your Work Down Into Small Tasks
If you can break your work down into small tasks, though, you won’t need to concentrate for long chunks of time, making distractions less of an issue.


7. Stay Away From Televisions
Televisions can be a bigger distraction than many others you might encounter during your day. The constant motion of a television show or ad can grab attention in a way that even people trying to talk to you can’t replicate.

8. Try Not to Rely on Getting Everything Done
Just because it always takes you a set amount of time to handle a particular project, don’t assume that your time requirements will be the same if you’re working somewhere new.

9. Have a Plan B
All sorts of things can happen, so have some sort of alternate plan in case something goes wrong. Maybe it isn’t the way you want to get your work done, but that’s why it’s a back up plan instead of the official approach.

Source : http://thanews.blogspot.com/2009/03/9-tips-for-working-under-stress.html