Managing stress as an Executive Assistant, and finding balance on the job and beyond.
Emotional wellbeing and regulation are important for us to succeed in our day-to-day activities and responsibilities as an Executive Assistant. Being stressed on the job can lead to decreased work quality, making more mistakes, unintended reactions to challenging situations and co-worker interactions, and health-related issues.
10 Common Stressors of an Executive Assistant
Feeling underappreciated
Unbalanced work/life
Remote work isolation
Lack of communication
Lack of control
Not enough bandwidth for assigned tasks or projects
Being interrupted regularly
Lack of clarity, feeling uncertain
Feeling ineffective performing routine processes
Spending too much time working during family vacations
Ugh. Stress.
As humans we need it to survive. At the survival level, stress usually comes in high doses which is an unhealthy level if prolonged. Small doses of stress are actually not that bad for us. Small amounts can help push us to work more effectively and even help us with our memory function. Small doses of stress can also be healthy for us by helping our hearts work better, thus boosting our immunity. Increase the level of stress however, and our bodies can respond by weakening our immune systems and causing us to experience depression, fatigue, anxiety, high blood pressure, and even heart disease.
As executive assistants, we can do well by using the elements of emotional intelligence to manage our stress for a very productive outcome.
Using Your Emotional Intelligence to Manage Stress
If you are experiencing increasing stress on the job, it is most likely exhibiting itself to you in some way or another, and unfortunately, to others as well. You do have a choice, however.
By practicing social and self awareness as well as self management, the basic components found in emotional intelligence, we can better manage our stress. Contrary to being reactive, pausing to recognize our thoughts, feelings, and urges when under stress, can allow us to gain more control of our emotions and how we react, preventing outcomes we may later regret or resent. This is the difference between operating inside or outside of awareness.
Being able to assess what is important to others and exhibit empathy will help reduce stress in ourselves and others.
8 Ways to Manage Stress and Find Balance
Move Around: Getting up from our desks, and moving around, is actually hard to remember to do when we are drilled down and focusing in on our work. Try some stretching exercises or have a "walking meeting." Whatever it takes, giving ourselves a little break a few times during the workday can ease stress.
Diet and Exercise: We all know that exercise and eating heathy are huge pluses to relieving stress. That feel-good hormone serotonin activates in our brains when we exercise, and we experience way less fatigue when we put good healthy food in our bodies. Two huge pluses in the effort to manage stress.
Be Outdoors: In all types of weather! Doing the things we love to do outside … more often. One of my favorite wintertime outdoor activities is hiking. I love to go to a favorite hiking trail and just hear the crunch of the snow under my boots. It’s so relaxing. Sometimes I just stop, close my
eyes … and listen to the quiet. The calmness I feel – it’s like winter is giving me a great big hug.
Practice Forgiveness: In any part and at any point of our lives, we can forgive others, and forgive ourselves. It will lighten our load and reduce our stress. Live, learn, and move forward.
Be good to ourselves: We should always try to be positive about ourselves. We are good people, and our intentions are pure. Treating ourselves with that same respect as we treat others in our workday, is a good gauge to practicing this. Keeping our support networks strong, treating ourselves to personal development, and remembering to reward ourselves, even in the little successes are just a few more examples of ways we can treat ourselves with respect.
Don’t worry: There is no need to worry or have anxiety about the past or the future. We can plan for the future and learn from the past, but it is nearly impossible to predict the future or change the past, so be positive, and live in the present. Focus on what needs to be done now, not everything that has yet to be done or is already past.
Support each other: Networking with other EA's, or joining an EA group that meets regularly can be a safe and uplifting experience to help us grow intellectually and be supportive to one another. Sharing ideas or learning more about a topic that we deal with on a daily basis can bring us new insights and increase our level of understanding, which we can apply to our work and relieve some of that associated stress.
Sleep: Getting enough sleep is imperative to managing stress. Our bodies need the recommended amount of sleep every night. Some sleep tips:
Redirect thoughts and actions in the evening to try to get the mind off the day’s activities and tomorrow’s work.
Stop checking emails, refrain from working at night, and just relax. This sounds impossible, but try.
Give our eyes and brain a break from screens at least an hour before bed, which would mean of course, not bringing our phones to bed with us. Hard to do. I know.
Read. A. Book.
We can try limiting caffeine intake to the mornings and give ourselves the rest of the day off from it, replacing caffeinated beverages with water during the day, and sipping a cup of a favorite calming tea an hour before bed.
About Sheri Thillman Sheri has over 16 years of professional experience partnering with and providing support to the C-Suite, entrepreneurs, business owners, and founders. She most recently served as a Chief of Staff in the technology space.
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