Working for yourself is a fantastic feeling and brings a lot of satisfaction with it when things are going to plan. But we’ve all had times when we have suffered incredible stress because something has gone wrong or not as we had anticipated. The immediate reaction is usually to shout at the PC screen, stamp about the room or even throw something! Whilst these actions may make you feel better at that point in time, they wont get rid of your stress.

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Here are 5 ways to beat stress

1. Step away from the screen. Having a short break for 30 minutes or so can really help clear your head and re-focus your mind
2. Go for a walk. If it’s a nice day take a walk around the block or the local park.
3. Listen to your favourite music. This will help take your mind off the problem and allow you to compose yourself
4. Tell someone the problem. You’ll feel a lot better and the person you share the problem with may be able to help
5. Do a jigsaw. This is a strange one but I’ve been reliably told by several people that your mind cannot concentrate on anything else when you are doing a jigsaw.

When you’ve taken time out to do one of the above, go back to your desk with a clear head and before you start working again make a list of the problem(s) and methodically work out how you can resolve the problem. Some ideas are below:

• Alter the situation. If the stress has occurred due to one specific event, take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again
• Adapt to the stress. Some people will thrive under stress and pressure, if you are one of those use the situation to your advantage
• Accept it. If you cannot change the situation you need to accept this fact and then learn to adapt to it
• Avoid it. Is it one particular client/situation causing all the stress? If so maybe it’s time to part company with them.

Are you stressed? If so how do you manage to beat stress?

From looking at my blog posts over the last few days the top 3 most viewed blogs are:

1. Take a Break and Relax
2. Top Tips For Keeping Your Business Records Organised
3. Top Tips For A Clean Desk

It seems that the majority of you want to keep your business and workspace organised, but still be able to relax.

Here’s my tip, if you keep your business organised first and foremost you will find it much easier to relax when you do make time for yourself. If you are ‘relaxing’ yet have something nagging away at the back of your mind ‘that filing needs doing’ or ‘I should have sent that e-mail’, you are not really relaxing. If you are able to organise yourself more efficiently you will be able to relax more effectively, which will have a positive impact upon you and your business as a whole.

Many people who run small businesses have to do everything themselves in the early stages. How often do you take a break to re-charge your energy levels before embarking on the next task? It’s all too easy to plough through the workload and get the job done quickly, but could it be done better if you were a little more relaxed?

Think back to a time when you were employed – you had designated break and lunch times to give you a break from your work-station. You should do this too in your own business. Walking away for as little as 15 minutes can really help productivity and the quality of your work. Here are a few ideas to help relax you if you work from home:

• Water the plants in the garden (during summer)
• Take a short walk around the block
• Close the office door and have lunch downstairs and watch TV for half an hour
• Make time to have a drink break away from your desk
• Walk to the shops for a newspaper, then read the paper during the next break

If you don’t usually give yourself a break during the day try it today. Take a short 15 minute break at 10:30 and see how much better you feel afterwards

photo credit: Rhys Asplundh

We all know that we need to take time out from our schedules to relax and wind down from working all day – whether that is from working 9-5 in a full time job, working for yourself or a mixture of both. Taking time to relax and indulge in our hobbies really helps to de-stress from work and also recharge your batteries. Different people have different ways of relaxing and enjoying their leisure time, below are a few of mine:

• Reading a book – mainly Chris Ryan and Lee Child books
• Video games – I love playing Forza 3 on my X-Box
• Flight Simulation – I regularly contribute articles and reviews to websites and magazines
• Sport – Probably the thing I enjoy doing most; watching almost any form of sport on the TV, or attending Leeds Rhinos matches.

photo credit: JorgeBRAZIL

The problem (if you can call it that) with all these is that there are inevitably going to be clashes with the wife who doesn’t understand why I watch so much sport, and sometimes there just isn’t enough time to do everything I plan on doing.

However, that isn’t such a bad thing as when I do get the time to do something when I wasn’t expecting to find time, I appreciate it and enjoy it all the more.

 
What do you do to relax and wind down from a hard day’s/week’s work?