If you were to be honest with yourself, more than likely, you are experiencing stress of some form right now. In fact, according to the 2014 Stress Statistics published by the American Institute of Stress, around 33% of people report not only feeling stress, but actually feeling extreme stress.
If stress is not managed in our lives, the results can be devastating. It can affect our weight or how we behave. It can devastate marriages, relationships and jobs. Stress can even spiral into destructive habits such as alcoholism, substance abuse, overeating, and workaholism. At times, unfortunately, stress and feeling overwhelmed can even lead to suicide.
If we look at the stress we experience, it usually can be traced to our time and energy management. I recently read a book by Carey Nieuwhof entitled At Your Best. In it, Carey shares a couple key areas that may be causing us stress in our lives.
UNFOCUSED TIME
Most of our hours are spent on the least important things, and the least amount of our hours is spent on the most important things. We are very undisciplined when it comes to our time. Is this true of you?
One important thing we need to remember is that the most productive people on earth get the exact same amount of time in each day that we do.
In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey speaks to this in Habit 3 – Put first things first. When planning your week, organize your time so that the most important things are getting done first. Choose between what’s good and what’s best. There are always going to be more opportunities that are really good, but you first have to choose those that are the very best use of your time.
Zig Ziglar once said, “If you don’t plan your time, someone else will help you waste it.” Focus on the things that only you can do and do them first or expect the feelings of stress to rise.
UNLEVERAGED ENERGY
The second area that may be causing stress is through unleveraged energy. Although we all get the same number of hours in a day, all waking hours are not the same. It’s not realistic to think that you can hit on all cylinders every hour of every day.
Right now, you are probably naming in your head what hours of the day you have less energy. It’s probably during the time when you go grab that afternoon coffee or piece of chocolate. It’s when you comment to a co-worker, “I’ve hit a wall,” or “This is my low time of the day.”
Nieuwhof says that every day is broken into three zones–green, yellow and red—and we will best leverage our energy if we learn how to place the things we need to accomplish into the correct zones.
In Part 1, we’ve talked about two areas that could be causing us stress–unfocused time and unleveraged energy. In Part 2, we will dive deeper into the three zones Nieuwhof shares and how they can help us both focus our time and leverage our energy.
We’re talking a lot about the hours in our day and how to maximize them. I believe the first hour or two of your day are critical to your success throughout the day. For further reading, check out my blog post on The Power of a Great Morning Routine.
Question: Do you believe unfocused time or unleveraged energy are contributing to stress in your life?
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