Managing Time and Stress

Chapter two examines management theories about stress and applying the management skill of stress and time management. To appreciate the importance of this topic, pause for a moment to make a list of all the people that you know who are completely and utterly “stress-free”? This is probably a very short list indeed. If you are alive and engaged in the social sphere then you most probably experience some degree of time pressures and other forms of stress. Of course some of us manage these better than others. Make no mistake about it, poor time management is a widespread cause of stress in the workplace, and this stress can affect people in a myriad of ways—physically, psychologically, emotionally, and behaviorally. The mismanagement of time and other forms of stress can be an individual handicap at the least and, if it persists over an extended period, become personally debilitating. When time and stress are poorly managed lots of bad things can happen—your body breaks down, your mind power is constrained, negative emotions cloud your ability to make decisions, job satisfaction ticks down, and work performance suffers. Therefore in this second chapter we look at how one can better understand and deal with the causes, alter the processes, improve the outcomes, and develop better approaches to managing time and stress.