Introduction
Working in educational institutions can be extremely stressful as staff are put under increasing pressure to teach longer hours, possibly in unfamiliar ways, and to spend longer hours on assessment and record keeping. At the same time, your learners may have ever-higher expectations. If you do not feel stressed, ignore this set of tips! If you are feeling stressed, the following suggestions cannot eliminate your stress, but may be able to prompt you to some strategies to help you to deal with it.
Top advices and strategies
1- Don’t ignore stress. There are no prizes for struggling to the point of collapse: indeed, this is the last thing you should be doing. As the symptoms of stress become apparent to you, such as sleep disturbances, eating problems, weight gain or loss, headaches or just finding you are on an increasingly short fuse, try to identify the causes of your stress and do something about it.
2- Allow yourself to feel anger. It is not surprising that people under stress often feel full of rage, which may not be specifically directed. People can become very frustrated when they feel powerless, so it may be worth taking stock of what is and what is not within your control. Anger, once generated, can be directed in many directions, and the most harmful of these is inwards. All the same, it is unwise as well as unprofessional to vent your rage on others, especially innocent bystanders who are caught in the crossfire. Find ways to let off steam that are not destructive to yourself and others. These may include some vigorous gardening or other exercise (within your own capabilities), a long walk or even smashing a few plates!
3- Write it out of your system. Some people find it very helpful to write about the issues that stress them and make them angry. This can take the form of a diary in which you record your feelings and analyze the situation, or letters you would like to send to the people who are causing you stress, or other forms of escapist or academic writing to take your mind off the current situation. Be very careful, however, about the ways in which you use your writing. Try to avoid firing off missives in anger that you might regret at a later stage.
4- Have some fun. Look for ways in which you can distress yourself by doing things that make you happy. A little hedonism goes a long way. Think about the things that give you pleasure like cooking, reading for pleasure, going to concerts or having a day of total sloth. Regard these as part of a programme of active stress management rather than as a guilt-inducing interference with your work. You deserve some time for yourself and you should not regard it as a luxury.
5- Don’t be afraid to go to the doctor. The worst excesses of stress can be helped by short-term medication or medical intervention of some kind. People are often unwilling to resort to a visit to their GP for matters of stress when they would not hesitate to seek help for a physical ailment. Do not let such feelings get in the way of finding the kind of support you need.
6- Use relaxation techniques. There are innumerable methods that can be used to help you unwind, including deep breathing, massage, aromatherapy and meditation. It might be worthwhile to explore the techniques that sound most attractive to you and try to use them to help you to cope with stress.
7- Work it out in the gym. It may feel the last thing on earth you want to do is to take physical exercise at the end of a long stressful day, but many people find it helps them to relax. Join a gym, take the dog for long walks, swim, take up golf, play a mean game of squash or just do aerobics at home to help your body to become as tired physically as your mind is mentally. Find out what kind of exercise works best for you and try to use it as a bridge between your working life and your own time. The time you spend will be a sound investment in helping you to keep on top, (but try not to let your exercise requirement end up feeling like another kind of work you have to do!).
8- Get a life outside your institution. Family and friends still deserve your attention, even if work is very busy. We all need to learn to keep a sense of proportion to our lives. Try not to neglect hobbies and interests, even if you sleep through the film or nod off after the sweet course.
9- Take a break. Often our panics over time management are caused not usually, by how much we have to do but mostly by whether we feel we have sufficient time to do it in. Try to take a real break from time to time, to help you get your workload into proportion. A little holiday, or a whole weekend without work occasionally can make you better at coping with the onslaught on your return.
10- Prioritize your tasks. Try to sort your work into jobs that are urgent or not, and important or not. Do urgent, important things first and do them well, do urgent unimportant things soon, too, but do not spend too much time on them. You will have a great glow of achievement about having got them out of the way. Block in time for the important, non-urgent tasks, so you can do them most effectively. Review carefully the jobs you think are neither important nor urgent, and either put them in a basket of work to do when you have a minute or are bored with your immediate tasks, or throw them away.
11- Talk about your problems. Actually voicing what is stressing you to a colleague, a line manager, the person you are closest too or even your cat can sometimes improve the situation. Bottling it all up through some misplaced sense of fortitude can be dangerous
