3 Ways a Project Manager Can Better Handle Stress

As a project manager, your role is an integral part of the business’s overall success. Everyone on your team relies on you to secure clients, understand their needs, delegate tasks to meet them, recognize and address obstacles, and reach the deadlines on time and within budget.

You might tell yourself or hear others say that you knew what you were getting into when you took on the role of project manager, but that doesn’t help reduce the stress you feel. Still, just because you can carry the load well doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy.

For your mental and physical health, and the well-being of your team and the business, you need to find ways to handle the stress of your job better. In this guide, we’ll share the top ways others in your position have learned to manage stress so they can focus on what’s truly important.

1. Start the Day Ready By Planning the Night Before

Imagine the two following scenarios:

• You get to work and are ready to make a list of what needs to be done that day. You open your email inbox to a dozen requests, and you’re thinking about the 30-40 things that were already in your mental to-do file. Suddenly, you’re exhausted, and the day hasn’t even officially begun yet.
• You took five minutes the evening before to reflect on the day and what still needed to be done. You made a list of the top priorities for the next day, took 60 seconds to clean your desk’s surface, and cleared out your junk emails. Then, you went home, knowing that you were ready to start tomorrow strong.

Whether you work from an office or virtually, starting the day running is a great way to feel confident. Even if an emergency arose overnight, you could feel comfortable addressing it and then get right back to the most important tasks on your list.

2. Automate, Automate, Automate!

How many of the tasks on your schedule are repetitive? If you’re not using an effective portfolio management tool, as discussed in this blog by Accelo, you’re wasting precious seconds of your day.

Yes, your knowledge and oversight are vital to the project’s success. But that doesn’t mean you can’t automate the simple stuff. Consider your workflow in the following areas, and how a project management tool could save you seconds that compound into many hours:

• Automating your scheduling using AI to review data and metrics, and assign resources accordingly.
• Using meeting software to automate schedules, reminders, and invites.
• Evaluating dashboards at a glance to get updates, look for potential delays, and monitor progress.
• Streamlining communication through automating reminders of upcoming assignments and deadlines, using chatbots to answer questions, and collecting important info to summarize meetings.
• Reviewing data to determine trends that could drive suggestions for the future.

If you already have project management software, are you maximizing its performance by making the most of it? Dig into the details to see what little nuggets of gold it could be hiding that might save you time and boost your profit margin.

3. Don’t Overfill Your Day

Some people are planners. They feel most organized when their Google Calendar is filled to the minute. Never mind scheduling things at 8:15. Their day starts at 8:07, and the tasks are arranged to flow seamlessly one into the next.

While this might seem like an efficient use of time, it can mean an instant pressure increase if anything crops up that wasn’t planned. A 10-minute delay at 8:08 means adjusting the entire day’s schedule. But if you add in a buffer between tasks, that short delay is a minor inconvenience instead of a major problem.

As you’re creating your itinerary for the day, remember not to overfill it. Leave room for some creativity, a little research planning, and a couple of unplanned-for activities. This not only reduces stress, but if the day runs as planned, you’ll have a little extra time at the end of the day — an unexpected gift to use as you see fit, with no guilt attached!

Conclusion

Project managers juggle many hats, filling their day with a range of minute tasks and complex jobs. This assortment of responsibilities naturally adds stress to each day. However, by planning the day before, automating where possible, and leaving yourself some wiggle room for delays, you can reduce the pressure and improve your job performance and satisfaction.