Confiding in Yourself through Writing
Keeping a diary is like confiding in someone else, except that you are confiding in yourself. This form of coping with severe stress may be especially helpful for those who are shy or introverted and find it difficult to open up to others. Although writing about traumatic and stressful events may have a short-term negative effect on mood, over the long term, stress is reduced and positive changes in health occur. A key to promoting health and well-being through journaling is to write about your emotional responses to stressful events. Set aside a special time each day or week to write down your feelings about stressful events in your life.
Time Management
Learning to manage your time can be crucial to coping with everyday stressors. Over-commitment, procrastination, and even boredom are significant stressors for many people. Along with gaining control of nutrition and exercise to maintain a healthy energy balance, time management is an important element in a wellness program. Try these strategies for improving your time-management skills:
• Set priorities. Divide your tasks into three groups: essential, important, and trivial. Focus on the first two, and ignore the third.
• Schedule tasks for peak efficiency. You probably know that you’re most productive at certain times of the day (or night). Schedule as many of your tasks for those hours as you can, and stick to your schedule.
• Set realistic goals and write them down. Attainable goals spur you on. Impossible goals, by definition, cause frustration and failure. Fully commit yourself to achieving your goals by putting them in writing.
• Budget enough time. For each project you undertake, calculate how much time you will need to finish it. Then tack on another 10-15%, or even 25%, as a buffer.
• Break up long-term goals into short-term ones. Instead of waiting for large blocks of time, use short amounts of time to start a project or keep it moving.
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• Visualize achieving your goal. By mentally rehearsing a task, you will be able to do it more smoothly.
• Keep track of the tasks you put off Analyze the reasons you procrastinate. If the task is difficult or unpleasant, look for ways to make it easier or more fun. For example, if you find the readings for one of your classes particularly difficult, choose an especially nice setting for your reading, and then reward yourself each time you complete a section or chapter.
• Consider doing your least favorite tasks first. Once you have the most unpleasant ones out of the way, you can work on the tasks you enjoy more.
• Consolidate tasks when possible. For example, try walking to the store so that you run your errands and exercise in the same block of time.
• Identify quick transitional tasks. Keep a list of 5- to 10-minute tasks you can do while waiting or between other tasks, such as watering your plants, doing the dishes, or checking a homework assignment.
• Delegate responsibility. Asking for help when you have too much to do is no cop-out; it’s good time management. Just don’t delegate the jobs you know you should do yourself.
• Say no when necessary. If the demands made on you don’t seem reasonable, say no tactfully but without guilt or apology.
• Give yourself a break. Allow time for play free, unstructured time when you can ignore the clock. Don’t consider this a waste of time. Play renews you and enables you to work more efficiently.
• Avoid your personal “time sinks.” You can probably identify your own time sinks activities like watching television, surfing the Internet, or talking on the phone that consistently use up more time than you anticipate and put you behind schedule. Some days, it may be best to avoid problematic activities altogether; for example, if you have a big paper due, don’t sit down for a five-minute TV break if it is likely to turn into a two-hour break. Try a five-minute walk if you need to clear your head.
• Stop thinking or talking about what you’re going to do, and just do it! Sometimes the best solution for procrastination is to stop waiting for the right moment and just get started. You will probably find that things are not as bad as you feared, and your momentum will keep you going.
For more help with time management, complete Activity 10 in the Behavior Change Workbook.
Time-management skills, including careful scheduling, can help people cope with busy days.
Do your patterns of thinking make events seem worse than they truly are? Do negative beliefs about yourself become self-fulfilling prophecies? Substituting positive self-talk for negative self-talk can help you build and maintain self-esteem and cope better with the challenges in your life. Here are some examples of common types of distorted, negative self-talk, along with suggestions for more accurate and rational responses.
