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This is that thing of ‘walk or sit, don’t wobble’ again. You’re watching YouTube but feeling stressed about it. You’re half working. You’re not being fully productive but nor are you getting the benefits of rest either.

One way to solve this problem is with the ‘pomodoro’ technique. Here, you simply segregate the time you have into short bursts of productivity and then short bursts of rest. Normally you do this using a timer.
So for instance, if you had 10 hours to complete a project, you might break this down into 25 minute working periods with 10 minute rests. This way, you accept that there are going to be points when you stop working but instead of fighting them and becoming exhausted, you embrace them and use them to properly recover. This is a much more efficient use of your time and while it can feel odd peeling yourself away it’s also very good training. Over time you need to teach yourself that sometimes taking a step back is okay – it’s the only way to get over an addiction to stress.

Rewards Systems

The Pomodoro technique is very popular and a lot of people swear by it. However it’s not suitable for every type of work. For instance, if you’re a writer or programmer then you might need to get into a ‘flow state’ in order to get your best work done. This means being completely focused on the work you’re doing and when you reach that point you will find you even end up putting off toilet trips.
Flow states are you at your most productive but once they’re interrupted they’re incredibly hard to get back into. So if you’re in that kind of job, the Pomodoro technique may not be a good fit.

THE STRESS-FREE STRESS MANAGEMENT PLAN

Instead, break your work up into tasks that you can complete. For instance, you might say that one ‘chunk’ of work is to complete 1,000 words. After that, you then give yourself a ‘reward’ in the form of a cup of tea, or ten minutes to sit and read. Whatever your reward, you will find that this not only breaks your work into periods of productivity and relaxation but also gives you more incentive to keep working and to keep being productive.

The key to getting this right though is to make anything that isn’t work a reward. Want to make a cup of tea? Well you can’t do it until you’ve checked your e-mail. Want to check Facebook? Not until you’ve finished writing that subroutine.

Where normally you might come into work, check Facebook, make a tea and have a chat before getting anything done, you’ll now have completely a ton of work even before your first cuppa. This completely changes the feel of the day and leads to much more work getting done.