Question: - Discuss Individual Management strategies of Stress.

Do you think that they can reduce stress

in the Organization?

Answer:-

It would seem as though successful people have somehow learned how to beat stress and win at the game of
life. While some crumble and fall under the demands and conditions of the workplace, others seem to thrive
and make those pressures work for them. How do they do it?

Managerial studies have found that individuals who manage their time wisely, engage in physical activities and
protect down/family time are the most successful at managing stress and creating an optimal work-life balance.
Let’s take a look at each of these suggestions.

Time Management
“If I had four hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first two hours sharpening the axe.” This quote is often
attributed to Abraham Lincoln and, whether he said it or not, it speaks to the essence of time management.
Time management is the ability to use your time effectively and productively at work, the ability to create a
schedule and plan your time to accomplish goals. Sharpen your metaphorical axe by setting aside
uninterrupted time and make sure the tools to do the job are at your fingertips, and you’ll be working smarter,
not harder.

There’s no shortage of time management training out there, and the basic principles of most of them include

 Creating daily list of tasks to be accomplished

 Prioritizing those tasks
 Schedule time to complete those tasks based on the priority assigned, and
 Tackle the most difficult tasks during the time of day when you’re most alert

Creating lists, prioritizing and scheduling are like sharpening that axe, and tackling them is akin to chopping
down the tree.

Time management experts suggest learning to say no to tasks, and finding ways to eliminate low-priority trivial
tasks from your to-dos. Flexibility is also a fairly common suggestion in modern time management training,
given that so much of an employee’s work day is unpredictable. Time management experts suggest planning
fifty percent of your day carefully, and leaving the other half open for unplanned “emergencies” as they come
up.

Finally, time management experts suggest that workers reward themselves for completing the tasks on their
list. Rewards are a great motivator (as we learned in Module 6: Motivation in the Workplace!).

Physical Activity
Virtually any form of exercise can act as a stress reliever, even if you’re not an athlete, even if you’re not really
in good athletic shape. Yoga, aerobics, a game of tennis, or even a simple walk with friends or family can
provide stress release and should be a part of an individual’s stress management plan.

Exercise of any kind releases endorphins, which are the feel-good transmitters in your brain that make you
happy. If you’ve heard of a “runner’s high,” that’s exactly the endorphin release to which we’re referring.
Individuals responding to stressors aren’t experiencing too many endorphins, and exercise can help put them
back into action.

Exercise can also provide an opportunity to refocus. An individual engaging in a game of racquetball, or
running to beat a personal best time, becomes focused on the goal of the athletic effort, on the movements of
his body and his athletic performance. This redirection of focus from stressors is a benefit.

Sleep is often disrupted by anxiety and stress, and regular exercise will improve an individual’s ability to get a
good night’s sleep. It also improves an individual’s mood. Any individual looking to add exercise to his or her
daily regimen should consult with a physician first, and, once given the green light, should make it a part of a
weekly routine.

Relaxation Techniques
Individuals can often get a little closer to work-life balance by practicing any of a variety of relaxation
techniques. Some relaxation techniques are practiced forms of meditation, and others are simply diversions
that take the mind off stress. Consider the following practices:

 Autogenic relaxation. In this technique, one uses visual imagery and body awareness to relax, often
by imagining yourself in a peaceful setting and then consciously relaxing your breathing, your limbs, and
your body, a little at a time.
 Visualization. Individuals exercising this technique use as many of their senses as they can in order to
put themselves in a relaxing scene. For instance, if one is imagining the beach, the smell of salt water
and the sound of crashing waves help create the visualization.
 Progressive muscle relaxation. An individual will slowly tense and then relax each muscle group in
this relaxation technique, starting with the toes and working upward throughout the body.
 Tai chi. Tai chi is a self-defense technique that’s developed into a gentle exercise that promotes good
mental health and stress release using the concept of yin and yang. It’s often described as “meditation
in motion.”
 Meditation. Individuals use this practice to achieve mental calmness and clarity by focusing their mind
on a particular thought, object, or activity.
The list goes on, and you get the general idea: relaxation techniques support a level of calmness by changing
focus to something other than the stressor. But one doesn’t need to zone out in a dark room in order to achieve
that change of focus on those relaxation techniques. A good laugh courtesy of your favorite sit-com, playing a
musical instrument, dancing to loud music, or knitting might be closer to your idea of stress release.

Protecting Down Time/Time with Family

Here are some statistics you might find all too familiar: According to a 2016 study by the Academy of
Management, employees bring home an average of eight hours of work a week. The American Psychological
Association discovered that 30% of men and 23% of women regularly bring work home, and similar numbers of
people admitted to working on vacation and bringing work on social outings.

Technology seems to demand that individuals be “on” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but an employee
can’t protect work-life balance when that’s a looming expectation. The good news is that employees can
leverage technology in their favor as well. Google Calendar now features a function that automatically rejects
requests for meeting and calls outside of the user’s established work hours. Apple has created a VIP inbox that
alerts you when messages from prioritized sources—your spouse, your kids, the CEO—have arrived, and lets
Bob in the mailroom wait until you’re available.

Similarly, mobile carriers now have programs where you can designate blackout times, allowing you to
completely shut off at dinner time, on weekends, or whenever you choose. And individuals should remember
that they can just choose to turn off their mobile devices. The email messages will be waiting when they return.
Reduce Stress in the Organization:-

In my opinion yes these strategies are very helpful in reducing the stress in the organization. All the above
strategies work together and make individual feel stress free while working in an organization. Time
management will help them organizing their work schedule and Physical activities help individual mentally and
physically stable. Hence all these strategies helps Individual fighting with stress.