ArcaMax

Feeling stressed at work?

I don't blame you.

The economy is looking rocky. The entire concept of job security feels like a quaint idea from another century. Your manager gives you too much to do and too little time to do it in. Your chances for getting another job are fading fast.

Yes, you have many reasons for feeling stressed at work, but there may be hope. For all the bad news I bring you on a weekly basis -- no need to thank me -- Jancee Dunn, a columnist for The New York Times, has good news on offer. Case in point: Her recent article, "4 Ways to Stop Stressing About Your Schedule," provides a quartet of practical techniques to fight stress at your job, leaving you more time to enjoy all the stress you experience everywhere else in your life.

According to the article, a prime generator of job stress is keeping up with a punishing schedule. "Sixty percent of people surveyed by the Pew Research Center," Dunn reports, "said they sometimes felt too busy to enjoy life." (The fact they were kept busy answering dumb questions from the Pew Research Center was not considered. I'd research the matter myself, but I'm too busy.)

What can you do to remove the stress from what you do and don't do? Let Jancee Dunn and I take your hand to lead you to the land of the terminally tranquil.

No. 1: "Abandon the idea that you'll ever be all caught up."

Is keeping a "to-do" list is one of things you do? Don't do it. No matter how much of your to-do list you do, there's always more that you won't do. And that will do bad things to your nervous system and your career.

Instead of stressing about checking off the boxes that you still have to do, focus on what you have done. For example, instead of worrying about the critical deadline you missed or the important client you aggravated, celebrate the accomplishments that count, like the way you once again beat out the senior VP of marketing by scoring the last maple bar at the morning staff meeting.

Check that box and enjoy your artery-clogging lump of dough while the senior VP seethes with jealous rage. Then take the rest of the day off. You deserve it.

No. 2: "Ask yourself: Is this actually urgent?"

It takes nerves of steel to ignore a series of increasingly hysterical after-hours phone calls and texts from your manager, but is any so-called work emergency worth missing a new episode of "Selling Sunset," especially when Chelsea's fight with Bre threatens the tranquility of the entire Hollywood real estate community?

My advice is to hide your phone and turn off your computer the minute you come home from work. Even better, hide your phone and turn off your computer the moment you come into work from home.

You might also hide yourself. When your manager finds you huddled under your desk, blame the bad blood brewing between Chelsea and Bre. Now, that's urgent.

No. 3: "Consider whether you can bring your B game."

Sorry to tell you, but all the advice about how you must work hard to get ahead in business is a bunch of hooey.

Bringing your A game to every situation will make you highly visible and highly vulnerable. Your co-workers will resent you since they will have to up their own games to compete. Your managers will worry that you're out to replace them.

When it comes to work, always bring your B game. With an inning or two of your C game and your D game. Whenever there is an opportunity for greatness, avoid it like the plague. Remember -- you don't have to be good at your job. You only have to be good enough.

No. 4: "Redefine 'valuable' time."

We mustn't regard downtime as unproductive, says psychology professor Thomas Curran, because "It isn't wasted at all."

This is certainly true after a busy day at work, when downtime helps you charge your batteries for the next day. It's even more true when you schedule downtime during a busy day at work. In fact, the more important the work you are supposed to be doing, the more valuable the time you spend not doing it.

Goofing off -- as it is known to scientists -- lets you see yourself as an eagle, flying fearless and free, instead of a stressed-out mouse, trapped in a corporate maze.

Your manager may not understand it, but Chelsea and Bre will, I promise.

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Bob Goldman was an advertising executive at a Fortune 500 company. He offers a virtual shoulder to cry on at bob@bgplanning.com. To find out more about Bob Goldman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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