A Stressful Time of Year

April and May always seem particularly stressful to me.  It is the end of the academic year, so everyone pushes hard to complete all those projects that must be done before the year ends.  I do this, too, so I understand it.  The problem is that many people need my help on their projects, which makes it difficult for me to complete my own. 

This useful article, Nine Ways Successful People Defeat Stress by Heidi Grant Halvorson, was helpful to me today.  I particularly liked "5: Add where and when to your to-do list."  The idea is to plan in advance when and where to accomplish a task.  I have been doing this more and more lately using the defensive calendaring technique.  I block out times on my calendar to work on specific tasks.  This accomplishes two important things.  It forces me to actually work on that project I may have been avoiding.  And it keeps others from scheduling that time on my calendar.  I love the group scheduling function in Google calendar, but meetings other people schedule can sure fill up my time. 

Here is another of her tips "8. Think about the progress that you've already made."  I thought about this today when I attended the retirement party of Dean Kjell Knudsen.  It's amazing how many things he has accomplished in his tenure as dean.  But as he pointed out, he had the help of many people, and he didn't do it all at once.  When I listed my accomplishments for the year for my annual performance appraisal this week, I thought, "Well, now wonder I'm so tired!"  

The author has many other useful tips in this article, so if you are feeling stressed this time of year, take a few minutes and read the whole thing.