This guide outlines several ways to manage stress from your business or career, avoiding the dangers of stress burnout, and implementing effective stress relief.
There are 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States with 1,821 new businesses started every day by women in 2021. Although entrepreneurship can provide greater freedom, flexibility, and job satisfaction, self-employed women are at higher risk of mental illness due to gender-based barriers that add stress and pressure to their work. In fact, 70% of female entrepreneurs regularly feel overwhelmed. As a female entrepreneur, it’s essential you work to manage stress and keep your mental health in check.
Ways to manage stress better
Identify your stress signals
Entrepreneurs typically juggle various different roles and face a host of challenges on a daily basis. Losing customers and clients, disputes with partners, staffing issues, and increased competition are some of the biggest sources of stress for entrepreneurs.
When working to manage work-related stress and anxiety, it’s important to first make sure you know how to recognize the signals of stress in your body. Once you’re aware of the signals indicating you’re stressed, you can then deal with them promptly and efficiently to manage stress.
For example, stress typically results in headaches, sweating, muscle tension, and an increased heart rate. Stretching and simple deep breathing exercises, for example, can then be performed to get these stress signals under control. Paying attention to your mindsets and moods throughout the day and using journaling as a self-monitoring tool can better help you identify your stress signals throughout the day, as well as your responses to them.
Consider outsourcing time-consuming tasks
Entrepreneurial stress is common across all industries, but particularly in high-pressure industries, such as law. In fact, over 70% of lawyers report experiencing work-related stress and anxiety. Fortunately, outsourcing can be an effective way to share your workload and keep feelings of being overwhelmed at bay.
In particular, by outsourcing time-consuming tasks, you’ll be free to spend more time focusing on the more important jobs that need your undivided attention, such as, meeting with clients. You’ll also be able to turn your attention to improving and bolstering the internal core processes needed to keep your business running smoothly. Outsourcing also helps ensure work gets completed in a timely manner. In turn, this helps stop you from becoming overworked or needing to take on more staff, which helps create peace of mind that in turn helps manage stress.
Stick to a schedule
When you stick to a regular schedule, you always know what to expect during your working day, which is key for staying organized and keeping unexpected surprises to a minimum. In fact, structure plays a vital role in maintaining a sense of control, which in turn prevents stress and anxiety.
The better you plan your day in advance, the less you have to proactively anticipate various potentialities as you go. So, if you know there’s a time-consuming or challenging task that needs completing, be sure to schedule it for the first thing in the morning.
Getting things done early on prevents you from either putting them off or dragging them out, as well as eliminates that sense of dread and helps manage stress. You’ll also boost your self-confidence and faith in your abilities. After crushing a challenging task, you’ll feel ready and able to conquer whatever else comes your way.
Moreover, your body also thrives on a set routine, which it needs to properly maintain its circadian rhythm: your internal body clock that governs your sleep cycle and when you start feeling tired or energized throughout the day. So, for example, you may notice your energy and focus levels start to droop in the mid-afternoon. By scheduling a short, brisk walk outside at this time, you can give yourself a valuable opportunity to clear your mind and re-energize.
Stop aiming for perfection
Women are more likely than men to be perfectionists, and, unfortunately, the drive for perfectionism (although a useful trait for entrepreneurs) can also be a huge source of work-related stress. Spending too much time obsessing over one task can end up derailing your other efforts to manage stress, and throw you off schedule. By stopping aiming for perfection all time, you can better keep on track with your workload and minimize stress. So, learn to recognize situations in which doing your best is good enough (even if it’s not perfect) and move on when it’s time to move on.
Pay attention to positives
It’s easy to get hung up on the parts of your business that need improving, but it’s just important to pay attention to the things that are going well. Recognizing the positives you’ve managed to achieve and the growth you’ve accomplished is an instant and easy way to boost your mood, which in turn helps keep stress and anxiety at bay. It also acts as a reminder that you’re on a journey towards your goals; knowing this alone can help give you the push you need to keep moving forward.
Taking stock of what’s going well also helps you feel more organized and in control of things, which can be a much-needed reminder amidst the typical chaos and uncertainty that often comes with running your own business.
Moreover, paying attention to the positives about your business helps your mind stay in the present moment. When you’re stressed and anxious, on the other hand, your mind tends to start racing through every possible scenario — from what will go wrong, what may currently be going wrong, what may have already gone wrong, and what you need to do to solve all these problems. By focusing on the current positives about your business, you can put an end to unhealthy patterns of thinking, which keep your stress level unnecessarily high.
Summary
Although entrepreneurship offers great benefits, such as greater freedom and flexibility, it’s easy to neglect your mental health on the road to success. By being sure to identify your body’s stress signals, outsourcing time-consuming tasks, sticking to a schedule, learning to stop aiming for perfection, and paying attention to the positives, you can better manage stress and anxiety and keep your mental health in check.
