Increasing professional and personal productivity through managing stress.

• Author: Rhodes, Julius

In today's fast-paced environment, all of us, whether in our personal or professional lives, are called upon to do more than we did in the past. Couple this with the fact that we often have fewer resources to help us and it is easy to see how opportunities for stressful situations can and do grow exponentially

One reality of the twenty-first century is that we are faced with constant challenges in our working environments. This is particularly true for public finance professionals, not only because of the role they play inside their organizations but because citizens' expectations always seems to exceed government's fiscal capacity. Each of us is faced with a choice. We can either manage and/or control the events that impact our lives and produce stress, or we can allow stress to manage us.

This article offers practical techniques to help busy professionals manage stress in two areas: first by effectively managing their time and second by learning how to manage stress through periods of change.

DEFINING TIME MANAGEMENT

At some time in our lives it is likely that each of us has been faced with the following dilemma. We either had all the time we wanted but no money or we had sufficient financial resources but not enough time. Perhaps none of us would admit to having all the money we need, but we can all certainly admit that we simply do not have enough time. It is important that we manage our time wisely because it is a finite resource.

Defining time is simple; defining time management is more difficult. How we manage our time is critical to our ability to handle stress. For our purposes, time management is the effective allocation of time among different tasks so that individuals can balance the requirements of their personal and professional lives. To do this, we have to understand and account for the connections between our personal and professional lives.

None of us has unlimited time. To maximize the time that we do have, we need to create more available time to perform the duties for which we are responsible. The only way to do this is by examining the areas that negatively affect available time and eliminating time and resource thieves.

For example, the average person wastes more than 20 minutes a day looking for misplaced items in their work area. Unfortunately, some of us are well above average.

There is an undeniable link between stress, time management, and results. In fact the phrase "tyranny of the urgent" refers to the fact that when we are pressed for time, we tend to make decisions that are less desirable than they would be if we were afforded the luxury of time. When it comes to what have been identified as the top 10 time wasters, we have control over 70...