Life Coping Skills

Stress&

Time Management

byValoula “Ula” Suapaia

What is Stress?

• Feeling out of control or pressured in an area or areas in life.• You cannot eliminate stress or the

pressures of time• Stress happens!• Learn to manage it well.

What can you control?

• Only how you respond to what you feel and what you think

(ref: Anger Management)

I.P.O.D Model of Stress and Time Management

• Identify stressorsStressors are those things, people, or situations that you respond to with tension, anxiety, worry, or an out-of-control feeling.• What are some of your stressors?

List stressors on the board.

Prioritize

• In order to effectively deal with stress and time we must put in order the things that are most important and need attention most immediately. Prioritize the previous stressors on the following chart on the board.

• Important – This must get done in order for life to continue.• Unimportant- The world will

continue even if this never gets done.• Immediate – This must get done

NOW!• Wait – This might need to get done

sometime before the next ice age.

Important Unimportant

Immediate

Wait

Circle the most populated quadrant. Many of the things we spend the most effort and time on are unimportant and can wait.

• OrganizeSince we cannot eliminate or control stress or the pressures of time, we must purposefully organize our responses.• Schedule – Using the information from

identifying stressors and prioritizing, place the most important and immediate things on a schedule first. If we schedule things we tend to get them done and it gives a sense of control.

• Routine – Repeated routine forms habits. Establish a routine time and way you deal with stress and managing tasks. Routine gives us a sense of control which minimizes stress and wasted time.

• Plan - Make a purposeful response plan to predicted stressors. Planning responses helps to create healthy response patterns rather than defaulting to stress responses.

Do it!• Effective management requires

purposeful plans that are carried out.• A positive plan that is implemented leads

to learning and growth. The negatives that we think about five times more than the positives keep us in a stress pattern. We all have “don’ts” in our head. In order to effectively manage stress we must change the negative don’ts into positive dos.

“You can’t do a don’t, the only way to do a don’t is to change the don’t into a do and end up doing the do rather than doing the

don’t.” (R. Newton)

• List “don’ts” on the board then change each one into a positive “do”.

Don’t Do____e.g. Stealing e.g. Give to otherse.g. Disrespect e.g. Compliment

Test

Hand out tests and collect when done

Questions & Answers