Blog : Simplification Reduces Stress 

I’m acutely aware of how my stress levels impact my ability to think and make decisions as well as how they affect my interactions with others.  My goal is always to continually develop and model good stress management behaviours with my team.

Stress and cognitive function

I recently read that we do our best 90% of our best thinking when we're not at work and I would hypothesise that is because we often put pressure on ourselves to do our best thinking at work! we know that although stress is a normal part of daily life chronic stress can impact our cognition including memory and decision making *. As we deal with the "stressors" our resources are directed away from our pre-frontal cortex and surrounding areas which are key to our executive function: memory, problem solving and analytical thinking.

What are your stressors?

One of the most simple ways to reduce our stress and work effectively with our brain is to start to identify what causes a stress response: often we can reduce stressors simply by switching off alerts on our laptops or phones so we're not always task switching (which can make any of us feel overwhelmed) or taking a break if we're starting to feel something is giving us those familiar symptoms such as cloudy thinking, lack of focus, racing heart and sweaty palms.

A great tool from Stephen Covey can be used here : the circles of control and influence. I like to reduce this back even further to look at a situation from the lens of what I can control in that moment I find it helps to centre me and brings me back to focus. Equally, exploring what I can't control helps me to re-gain perspective and can reduce the overwhelm. 

You can't always eliminate your stressors as many of them are external however you can look at reducing exposure and / or how you respond. Building in coping mechanisms can enable you to regulate your emotional response. Equally, these can help you cope more effectively. 

For example one of my crunch points is when my diary gets too full: I know that I have so much to do during the day outside scheduled work. I work alongside a  great PA who helps me manage my time and gives me flexibility we proactively look ahead and if I feel that a week is getting too busy we move things around. I've equally now  scheduled "thinking time" which is usually spent walking or at the gym/ spa as I recognise when I'm in a calm state I can make much more effective decisions.

Simplification

Often we feel like we need to do more than we currently are and this can increase the pressure we put on ourselves: I've been in situations where I've believed if I add more to my plate it will equal better results and although I thrive on a healthy amount of stretch in what I do there is a tipping point. Often if we simplify what we're doing and reduce our commitments it can enable us to feel more in control: I love using the do, ditch, delegate, automate tool here: this is where you write down everything you need to do and then allocate it to the four buckets: it helps you prioritise and equally allows you to see where you can simplify and let go.

Stress and the coaching relationship: 

As we know stress impacts the brains ability to function effectively and it's often a topic that's bought to coaching sessions, here are some more ways to lower stress levels which you can work on with a coach or on your own:

Stop and breathe! Whatever you’re doing, stop and take some deep breaths – in through your nose and out through your mouth. You can even try something like box breathing/square breathing– breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for four and hold for four… and repeat. This technique distracts the mind as you count; it relaxes you and calms the nervous system, and decreases stress in your body. Studies show that regulating your breath can lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and maybe even help lower blood pressure.

Address Your Stress Bucket - Ask, what can you remove from your stress bucket? This is a great tool you can use yourself and with clients to manage stress levels... Imagine there’s a bucket inside your body, collecting every ounce of your stress. Each day, your bucket is filled with smaller events, day-to-day things and bigger events. It can be near-empty one day, and full the other. What goes into your bucket boils down to how you feel about events and situations. Sometimes, we have so much going on that our buckets overflow. If this is you today, have a look at what you can take out. What can you take out of your bucket? It could be answering emails, getting the laundry done… What is it for you?

Imagine Connecting to Yourself Without Stress - This version of you is floating in a pool of calm. Take some time to picture yourself in this state. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? How are you behaving? What’s different? If you imagined yourself to be a calm person, what would change right now? What would you NO LONGER do? What would you do MORE of? Why does this work? Visualisation is the first step to building a new neural pathway in your brain, creating a calmer you. What can you do now to reinforce this pathway?

Stressor Signs and Coping Mechanisms - We know that stress levels are impacted by many different variables in life and so, it’s important to; understand more about stress, recognise your own stressor signs and find coping mechanisms that work for you. Revisit a time you felt stressed before and apply the stress-reduction strategy that helped you. Stress isn’t avoidable, but it can be managed.