I have a number of strategies for trying to control stress, but first let me be clear how I'm defining stress. I think about human stress in the same terms as the concept of stress in mechanics:
Stress is the result of pressure being applied beyond a material's ability to remain flexible
In this situation, you are the material under stress, so your only two options are to:
- decrease the pressure on you
- increase your ability to be flexible
Both of these approaches work, but most of the time you're feeling stress, decreasing the pressure is something beyond your control—so that means our path to removing stress primarily lies in our ability to increase our own ability to be more flexible under that same pressure.
Personally I'm not the best at this, but here are some things I try to increase my ability to cope:
Good approaches
- listening to music can help calm and focus me on a task
- taking a break to shower, eat, or exercise revitalizes me and makes me ready to start fresh
- switching tasks can sometimes take pressure off if you're stuck on something, and sometimes the solution just comes to you later when you're working on something else without much effort - but if you sat and waited for the answer you'd be frustrated and have little work done
- breaking large tasks into many small to-do list items can help build inertia and help you stay productive compared to trying to fight a massive problem all at once
Bad approaches
- skipping meals can give me time I need to be flexible at the cost of energy and alertness
- skipping sleep can give me a time I need to be flexible at the cost of alertness and tomorrow's productivity