The Good, Bad & Ugly about Stress and a Few Ways to Deal With It

You may find this an unlikely category in which to talk about stress and I agree it could appear in many different segments in Sword Tips.

I’ve put it here to emphasize the effect of stress, how we manage it and how it affects our Productivity.

Stress is Good?

Of course, we both know about the Yerkes-Dodson Law.

Yeah, right.

Turns out that the concept says that “performance increases with stress” (called arousal) up to a point … but then too much of it harms performance”.

Read the key points of the Yerkes-Dodson Law … and stress out … a little!

Is Burnout the opposite side of that coin?

As you can see from the graph accompanying the article above, too much stress isn’t healthy and impairs performance.

“Here’s how to recognize the physical symptoms of work-related stress — and what to do about them.”

What about Decision-Making Under Stress?

Continuing our discussion of stress-related issues, it turns out that in a study of fire stations in Colorado, researchers found that while people are normally optimistic, they will also ignore the bad news and embrace the good.

Interestingly under stress, we become hyper-vigilant to “bad news” but our stress level doesn’t change when we respond to good news.

Strange creatures, aren’t we? Very interesting, so don’t miss, How Your Mind Gets Better at Processing Bad News.

How to rally from that pesky "Afternoon Fade"

There are a lot of ideas about how to “rally up” when that mid-afternoon fade shows up. Naps are proven remedies but not always possible if you’re NOT working at home. Caffeine is tempting but could interfere with your nighttime sleep.

Here are some other ideas you can put to work.

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