Stress and Time Management

Health behaviors are actions taken by people to enhance or maintain their health. Good health behaviors can be defined by listing seven behaviors: (1) sufficient sleep, (2) abstinence from smoking, (3) eating breakfast every day, (4) moderation in alcohol consumption, (5) regular exercise, (6) foregoing snacks between meals, and (7) being no more than 10 percent overweight. Although most people practice some health behaviors, most omit at least a few others. One such is time management.

Time Management

Time management is an integral part of stress management. It includes planning, setting, and prioritizing goals. One of the most useful and effective tools for time management that I have seen and used is the maintenance of an individual, daily "to do" list. If I list everything I can think of, there is no way, of course, that I can get to it all. However, if I prioritize that list, then go down it in that order, then I can be sure I will accomplish the most important tasks. This takes a substantial amount of stress off me.

What I do is to sit down the evening before and list everything I can think of that I would like to do, or should do, the next day. Then I prioritize the first five items from the most important or urgent down to the last. I find that if I get through all five items, I have usually put in a full day. If I don’t get through them all, however, I have achieved the items that are first on priority.

It is amazing what a relief from stress this can achieve. It is certainly worth a try, wouldn’t you say?


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