Everybody comes under stress now and then and for most of us that is while we are working. Having a boss is stressful enough, but at least the buck stops on his or her desk. When you work for yourself you have the stresses of normal workers, but you also have the added stresses of complying with the law, the taxation system and the unions and the consequences can be very serious if you slip up. Ignorance of the law is no excuse as the judge will declare as the gavel comes down and your cheque book comes out.
People deal with their stress in their own ways, but it is valuable to note a few of the popular ways to reduce stress levels in a home business situation. A simple but often very successful way to lessen stress is to have a pertinent, but comic poster near-by for you to look at.
My Dad was a builder and on the wall opposite his desk was a poster of a monkey in overalls trying to put building blocks on top on one another. Underneath it read: “You Do Not Have To Be Mad To Work here, But It Helps”.
It is an old one, but it was in the seventies and the whole point is that whenever he read it, it made him grin. Another poster he had was of a huge tiger walking through the edge of a jungle clearing. Again inspirational. Others might choose Kipling: “If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue” et cetera or a paragraph from the Bible.
Motivational posters, pictures and mantras are very useful, but sometimes you have to have more, because high levels of stress are considered an occupational hazard for people in business for themselves. One thing that I like to have near-by is a small fridge just for me (but I do work alone) and inside it are treats that I only touch when I need to.
There are expensive ice creams, connoisseur chocolates and my favourite drinks, including chocomilk, fruit-flavoured spa water and home-made iced tea and iced coffee. If i am stumped, I take a few minutes out to eat or drink something and relax by looking out of the window. Five minutes later, I feel capable to have another run at the problem.
Some people find that playing one of the games that comes with most types of Windows for fifteen minutes helps a lot, but I prefer to stay productive so I just switch jobs for a while. Like most people in the West these days, I have a broadband connection that is ‘always on’, so email is coming in all the time too.
If I am having a problem with something and the answer just will not come, I switch over to Outlook and read and reply to a couple of emails. I find that taking my mind off the immediate problem for a time helps me to refocus, and I have not lost any time because I have to go through the mail at some time in any case.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is presently concerned with office stress. If you are suffering from any kind of stress, please go over to our website now at Stress and Heart Disease
