8 Great ways to be happy while handling a stressful project

You can read more and more about being productive. But you need to know the art of managing work stress. Your are truly productive only if you are stress-free. You get projects and tasks to accomplish because you are productive.

Here are eight great ways to be happy even if you are assigned to handle a stressful project:

1. Stay focused – Focus on every single work you do. If you can focus more on a single task then you can reduce the friction in your work. Having too many tasks is fine but focusing on too many things is overwhelming. Sometimes our attention gets distracted when there is no deadline. So, you can even create a small stress, like a deadline, when you need to stay in focus.

2. Prioritize your tasks – What are you going to do right now matters. Push back relatively less important tasks. When you start a day with a stressful project, don’t ever think you are stressed. This thought will ruin the day. Start making a list of tasks for the day and work at the the most important task.

3. One task at a time – Multitasking is a gift. But you need not always be a person with multiple tasks. Take one task at a time. There is nothing wrong in doing a single task with full concentration. This will help you to stay productive as well.

4. Break the big project into modules – Breaking a big project into modules is not a new idea in the IT field. But here I mean the length of the task.  Start your day with regular high priority work. Never expect too much to be done and never feel dissatisfied! You should always remember to break your big task into smaller chunks so that you could really feel happy on completing them. Make the tasks really small and achievable.

5. Prioritize your “To-Do” list – If you are a busy person handling multiple projects or tasks, then you definitely need “To-Do” list with tasks prioritized. You can be overwhelmed of your greater expectations. When you have a huge “To-Do” list, don’t get furious. You can very well split the list.

For example, if you have got six pending tasks with four working hours in hand, then you can split it in such a way to accomplish three tasks in two hours. You will experience a joy in yourself on completing these three tasks. This will be a booster for the next set of tasks.

6. Take a small and energetic break – It is not as simple as take a break, have a kit-kat. When you are piled up with tasks you don’t find time to take a break. When you are mentally locked up, you need to refresh yourself and take breaks. Breaks can vary from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. There are so many ways to pull out yourself. Try any one simple way which will help you relax.

7. Let your needs and goals be closely attached – What is your goal in life? You will definitely have an answer for this question. In the same question if you replace ‘goal’ with ‘need’, still you will have an answer. If these two answers go well together then, you can handle work stress. This shows that you have chosen the goal which satisfies your needs.

For an instance, you start a project with great enthusiasm and you get half way through it. But you run out of momentum towards the end. If you lose the project, it is very painful. On the other hand, if you are associated with your goal then, you can find momentum and join the party again.

8. Recollect the good things – At the end of the day you need to recollect how well you managed the day. It will really help you learn a a lot. Never feel that your job pushes you out of your comfort zone. Be positive. You are getting paid to learn the lesson of managing a stressful project and becoming a better person. Just realign your thoughts with positive things first and trash the negatives.