It's all in the mind, isn't it? :) I love your ideas. If I may add one idea:
Try to come up with three different metaphors for your project. This may sound odd to some, but there is hardly a better exercise for the mind than to look for similarities and think through the images you come up with. Interestingly enough, mental chess games of cause and effect relationships with your metaphors actually help you find creative solutions if your metaphors are truly applicable to your project. The mental exercise helps me to relax. Saving Changes...
I also feel it is down to the type of person. e.g. do they worry constantly, do they think too much about matters that can be resolved, do they take things to heart! do they need reassurance - its down to being confident and strong to see the whole picture not to let things get to you.
May I add that when you leave work dont take work issues at home and dont take personal issues into work - separate the two. Whilst in work you are the professional PM the company has employed you and at home you may be the partner\husband\wife, father\mother.
Sleep on it, tomorrow is another new day!
Saving Changes...
Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Very interesting article and question. One more thing what might help beside the good tips from the people on this trail is to start on time with the activities. THis sounds obvious and what might help to stay focus is to catagorise the actvities along the axis Important and Urgent. see slide
Most of the time we spent 95% or more of our time in Urgent and Important with stress as a result. Moving away into Important but not urgent yet and Urgent but not important will reduce the stress level. Not important things tend to become important when the urgency increases.
Important and Urgent should be 50% of your time max preferable less than 20%
Hopes this short explanation helps Saving Changes...
Yvonne ParleEast Victoria Park, Western Australia, Australia
Hi, thanks for the post, interesting topic!
In a profession where literally "the buck stops here" for a Project Manager and where we are only as good as the last project we delivered, I'd suggest you'd be well advised to be a stress tolerant individual to start off with if you chose the PM profession to make your livelihood.
I have found that the single largest predictor of whether I'm going to have to tolerate even more than the usual amount of stress on a project is directly linked to quality of my Sponsor. With an experienced Project Sponsor, one who understands their role and is prepared to "wield the bat" where necessary, stress is something that can be kept at manageable levels. Of course we'd never start a Project without a Sponsor (would we??), but in the absence of good Sponsorship or worse, in the prescene of bad Sponsorship it's clear that the PMs stress levels are set to rise.
I try to manage stress as I manage risk, because it is in fact a risk in itself, on a project and a personal level.
Examine whether the stress can be
-avoided (is this something I consciously chose to stress about or can I adjust scope to eliminate it),
-reduced (are there some elements of the stress that I can ignore),
-shared (check that I'm not taking on someone else's stress) or has to be
-accepted and managed/tolerated
At the end of the day, stress is inevitable in Project Management and we must be able to chose our response to the stressors, becoming response-able as Covey puts it [ISBN-10: 0743269519]
On a purely personal note I find that having a good game of tennis and whacking that ball as hard as I want provides wonderful stress relief for the stressors that have to be accepted and managed.
Don't forget the talking cure ... having colleagues and friends who share the same challenges can provide the welcome relief of knowing you're not alone - we're all in the same trenches from time to time.
