2. Name and pin down causes of stress.

It's been a foggy, but warm day in Cornwall. We ventured out to take the dog for a short walk, but didn't go too far as we were worried that we may lose our beloved friend in the fog!

It's been only a few days since I have been off from work and I feel sooo much better ;-) After spending a few days with my family, my work related 'tragedies' seem very remote.

Back to the business: causes of stress. I have done some background reading around the topic last year as I was feeling the invisible enemy was creeping upon me like a shadow and as I am thinking of the causes I already know some solutions [;

1. Emails
2. Constant phone calls.
3. Students enquiries.


All three causes are my customer service responsibilities and  the main issue here is that they are all time consuming. It is a time management issue or as supporters of voluntary simplicity say: 'managing yourself in time'.

Emails:

It's scary how many emails I get every day- even from the people who work in the same room! People don't rely on conversations any more Majority of people I work with believe that if you want to communicate you should send an email- ideally with a tiny red flag and cc your manager to add a bit of weight to the message...  Having done just a little bit of reading about emails it seems that one of the cardinal mistakes made by 9-5 workers is compulsive email checking! It is a huge time waster and a huge distraction stopping us from doing the things that are more important.
Here are some tips from Elisabeth Wilson, the author of 'Slow down. Enjoy your life and live longer' on  managing your work emails:

• check emails three times a day: in the morning- but not during the first hour! after lunch and just before you leave (how many times a day do you check yours?)
• plan your time for checking emails and stick to your slots!
• remember that work emails are 'to do' lists of other people, so do YOUR important tasks first, before you deal with other people's priorities.

Phone calls:

I share the office with four colleagues and we have only 2 phones. One of them is situated very close to my desk... definitely too close. I am often distracted by a random caller who is after one of my colleagues, not me. I need to check if we can have our private phone numbers so that we don't have to work as secretaries for each other. 

It is impossible to control incoming calls, however it is possible to manage them. One of my favourite tips is using a phrase: 'I am in the middle of something now'. Then the caller knows you are busy and might either call you at another point or simply keep the conversation short. As with the emails, it is better to reserve yourself a slot for making phone calls and doing them in a block rather then at different points during the day. Again making phone calls distract us from our main tasks. 

Student enquiries:

Another time management challenge. Students love to treat me as their PA and pass all their queries to me. I am so worried that I will forget about their enquiries that I always deal with them ad hoc, immediately after seeing the student. Those meetings usually happen during break and lunch time I supposed to use to eat and relax. That's it! I am going to prioritize myself for a change and TAKE my BREAKS! If a student has an enquiry he or she may either email me or book a tutorial. I am going to put a schedule of tutorial slots on my door. If it is something important they will come back, if they don't why should I worry about it?

What are your thoughts? What are your major time wasters and what can we do about it?