Lots of people experience stress in their life. Some feel it all the time, others just on specific moments. While a little stress can make you more effective, add a little more and it will probably slow you down.

A professional knows that dealing with stress is important to get right. More responsibility often means a higher chance to get into stressful situations. The better you can deal with it, the more effective you can be.

A couple of strategies:

• Pick alternative activities. For a lot of people, moving is one of the best ways to relieve stress. Others find their calm in a hobby, going out in nature, meditation, breathing exercises, hanging out with friends, et cetera. You know what works best. The important part here is to build in pockets of time before you get stressed out.
• Empty your head. Almost every time I’m stressed out, it is because I’m keeping stuff in my head. Just the act of putting everything I’m thinking about onto a piece of paper or another system I trust, allows my mind to let go of things and with that relax.
• Avoid unnecessary stress. Some things are within your control and can be pretty easily taken care of: negative thinking or always thinking about the worst case scenario, procrastination and with that creating stress to finish work on time, being late for appointments and getting stressed out about that, clutter and the accompanying stress when you need something and being underprepared for things. Being aware of this could take care of a lot of stress before it even happens.
• Accept the things you can’t change. And finally, we’re good at spending brain cycles on things we actually can’t change. This is difficult, but the things that are outside of your control should be accepted as they are.