How many times have you been stunned with a rough situation thats left you panicked, annoyed and unable to think clearly? Sometimes it feels as though the burden of the world is now sitting on your shoulders with no way out. Of course, you then come across some people who are totally calm and unaffected by the situation and are able to function completely normally. There is actually a system to being calm that involves building a habit of surrounding yourself with a panic-free environment and having tools to help you deal with situations as they occur.
1. Assess The Situation & Prioritise Tasks
When a problem arises, first of all look at the situation and gather all the information you need to get a better picture of what the issue is. A lot of the time, circumstances can look worse than they really are. This can be seen well with children when they come home crying with a wound on their knee, full of blood, that looks horrid but when you clean up the affected area it’s only a small scratch for a which a plaster will suffice.
The great thing about assessing situations is that it gets your mind to focus on the situation objectively and practically. The reason we panic is because the mind doesn’t have enough data to figure out what to do so it quickly becomes fearful in order to prepare for the “flight or fight reaction”. By gathering information we are feeding the brain with knowledge so that it can work on potential solutions, pick the most appropriate one and then solve the problem in priority order.
2. Reduce Daily Decisions
Quite often we make so many mundane decisions during the day that by the time we come to emergency problems we are too tired to figure out the right answers. This is called “decision fatigue” as the human brain is only designed to make so many decisions in a set space of time before it needs a break. So to make our day easier it is helpful to make decisions in advance for situations you know are going to come up during the day. E.g. decide a week in advance what you will be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner so you can either prepare it in advance or have the ingredients ready beforehand. This can save you time as you can do your food shopping all in one go and it can save you money as you are less likely to be tempted to spend on impulse items. This can also be applied to your wardrobe where you can decide what you will be wearing to work for the week ahead. Either way, you make less decisions during the day so you have more brain power available to focus on tough situations as they come up.
3. Automate or Delegate Tasks
This is a great way to free up your day from doing routine and repetitive jobs that can surprisingly suck up decision making energy. So the best way to clear a lot of these is to either figure out a way to automate them or to delegate them. E.g. If you have a lot of laundry or cleaning that you simply can’t get time to do, you can delegate them to companies that come out and get them done for you at regular times for a set price. That way you have more time to work on other problems that come your way. The same can be applied to automation where special tools can be found across the internet for scheduling appointments, posting the same marketing material across several social media channels, emails, paying bills etc.
4. Batch Similar Tasks Together
Another way to reach decision fatigue faster is by attempting to do lots of different jobs that causes your mind to mentally jump back and forth between tasks. A good way to avoid this is to figure out which tasks require similar mindsets, batch them together and then proceed to get them done in one set time. That way your mind can stay focused in one attitude to complete the task quickly and effectively.
5. Simplify to Amplify Your Efficiency
Have you noticed how there are some people that can get so much done in a short space of time and yet you struggle to get even half of the same jobs done as you always seem to run out of time? How is it even possible when we all have the same 24 hours in the day? Well, its most likely because they’re working smarter rather than harder by following the 80/20 rule? It means that 80% of your results tend to come from only 20% of the activities you do. So with that in mind, your best bet is to focus your efforts on the critical few tasks that will yield better results rather than the trivial many jobs that you think you need to do.
