I'd be hard pressed to think of anyone I know who's never been stressed. While some people handle stress better than others, stress is something that's experienced by pretty much everyone across the board.

Workplace stress can be caused by many things such as:

• Working long hours
• Heavy workload
• Changes within the organisation
• Tight deadlines
• Changes to duties
• Job insecurity
• Lack of autonomy
• Boring work
• Insufficient skills for the job
• Over-supervision
• Inadequate working environment
• Lack of proper resources
• Lack of equipment
• Few promotional opportunities
• Harassment
• Discrimination
• Poor relationships with colleagues or bosses 

 List from: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Work-related_stress

Stress affects everyone differently, but some of the ways you could be affected are:

Cognitive Symptoms Memory problems Inability to concentrate Poor judgment Seeing only the negative Anxious or racing thoughts Constant worrying	Emotional Symptoms Moodiness Irritability or short temper Agitation, inability to relax Feeling overwhelmed Sense of loneliness and isolation Depression or general unhappiness
Physical Symptoms Aches and pains Diarrhea or constipation Nausea, dizziness Chest pain, rapid heartbeat Loss of sex drive Frequent colds	Behavioral Symptoms Eating more or less Sleeping too much or too little Isolating yourself from others Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)

Table from: http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm

So what can you do to manage stress? Many of us fall into the traps such as zoning out in front of the TV or computer at the end of the day, withdrawing from our usual activities, sleeping more than normal and drinking or smoking more. In the words of Dr Phil - 'hows that working out for you'? I'm guessing not too well. Some suggestions for more reliable and healthy ways of beating stress are:

• Work out what is actually stressing you out and think of ways to solve it. If it's a process, could this process be changed to make life easier? If it's a personality clash, how could you work with this person? If it's a heavy workload, assess whether being more organised could impact on this pressure, or whether there is someone who could help you out. Consider whether you are appropriately trained to complete the tasks you are working on. In many cases stress is caused by staff not having the right skills to get the job done - could further training help you?
• Find a way to relax that works for you. This could be meditation, deep breathing, cross stitching - whatever, as long as you have a way to calm down. When you feel yourself becoming stressed at work, take a few moments to relax and 'ground yourself'. 
• Know where you can go to get help, it could be a friend, a coworker, your manager or human resources representative.
• Make sure you take time to stay healthy - that means stick to your usual exercise routine, eat well, take regular breaks for fresh air. Stress can have very negative impacts on your health and it's important that you make an effort to keep healthy. Imagine how much more stressed you'd be if you had to add being sick to your list of worries!

Here are some articles I've found which have some good information on beating stress:

• http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm - a great resource with suggestions for coping with stress
• http://www.helpguide.org/mental/work_stress_management.htm 
• http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Work-related_stress
• http://www.mindtools.com/smpage.html - Mindtools has some great pages, particularly one about working in intrinsically stressful roles...sound like your job?
• http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2010/07/15/2954379.htm

How do you manage stress?

Lately I've been lamenting my loss of focus - I've gotten so good at doing twenty things at once that I really struggle to slow down and just do one thing at a time.

In my post on multitasking I mentioned that for most assistants 'unitasking' (only working on one thing at a time) is great in theory, but almost impossible in practice. Our roles generally require us to be bombarded with tasks and information, usually all of which must be dealt with concurrently. So how do you still the cacophony of interruptions and focus on just one urgent task?

The most common suggestion for retaining focus is to minimise the distractions of email and telephone. Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to take the phone off the hook and shut down Outlook for the day? Well, yes, but sadly most of us are paid to keep a constant watch over our bosses emails and phone calls so that they can enjoy the benefits of fewer distractions, so if we're going to do this it can only be for short periods. A good idea is to do this when you know you won't be called upon to update your boss - for example if they are going into a 2 hour workshop it's a pretty safe bet that you can spend the first hour and a half of that time 'offline' and then spend the final 30 minutes catching up on whats going on with their emails and phone calls so you're ready to update them at the end of their meeting.


This leads into another great suggestion of knowing what times you work best. For example I am best at involved and complicated tasks first thing in the morning, tasks involving other people prior to lunch and for an hour or so after lunch I'm best at sticking to routine tasks like filing. Knowing this helps me make sure I use my best focusing time (the morning) to work on the tasks requiring the most focus instead of trying to muddle through them in my post-lunch haze. Dave Cheong suggests time boxing on his blog:


Instead of working at something till it is done, try working on it for a limited period, say 30 mins. By that time, the task is either completed or you allocate another time slot, perhaps in another day, to pick it up again. This way, you keep your work fresh and engaging throughout the entire working day.

I think this idea is particularly relevant to assistants as its very rare that our schedules will allow us to sit and work on the same task for long periods of time. Another important tool to help with focus is to take regular breaks...seems counter intuitive doesn't it, but taking regular breaks can actually help improve your focus.

Some sites I've found with interesting suggestions for improving focus and time management are:

• http://blisstree.com/live/5-tips-to-help-you-focus-at-work-155/
• http://www.davecheong.com/2006/08/14/18-ways-to-stay-focused-at-work/
• http://www.davecheong.com/2006/06/21/11-ways-of-staying-focused/
• http://zenhabits.net/16-ways-to-keep-a-razor-sharp-focus-at-work/
  http://selfevolution.net/how_to_focus.html
• http://lifedev.net/2008/03/10-ways-historys-finest-kept-focused-at-work/

I've spent the last seven years becoming very good at multitasking, as I'm sure all assistants have. Being able to cope with and process many tasks, concepts and requests all at the same time whilst smiling and making someone a cup of coffee seems to be an essential skill.

Recently my constant multitasking has started to bug me, is it really necessary to read and respond to an email while talking to someone about their weekend, and answering the phone to boot?

There's been a lot written about 'uni-tasking' or mindfullness which focuses on the idea that by only completing one task at a time and focusing your full attention on it you'll get more done, feel less stressed and produce better outcomes. This idea really appeals to me, to be able to sit and focus on one task at a time, devoting your full attention to it and creating great results, but is it really possible/practical in an assistant's role?

Sadly, for the most part I think the answer is no. In my view the assistants job is to make their manager/s life easier, and that generally involves taking tasks off their already full plate and completing them efficiently, effectively and usually concurrently. Unitasking can be impractical - it can hold up other parts of your business while they wait for you to finish or it can make other staff waste time trying to do something you could do ten times faster (have you ever watched a CEO try to fix a paper jam?).

Here are some articles on multi-tasking and uni-tasking for your reference:

• http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/03/your_brain_on_m.html
• http://blogs.hbr.org/silverman/2010/06/in-defense-of-multitasking.html
• http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking

I guess the ideal situation is a combination of unitasking and multitasking depending on the situation and workload - what do you think? Are you able to unitask at work or are you too busy juggling twenty tasks?

Today I came across a blog I found useful and thought I'd share it with you.

It is Patricia Robb's Laughing All the Way to Work: A Survival Blog for Today's Administrative Assistant

I particularly liked her post on Playing Nice in the Sandbox, it's well worth the read.

Have you found any useful websites lately? If you have, please share them in the comments section - I'd love to know about them.