Developing A Stress Management Plan

A stress management plan does not necessarily require
a lot of time and energy. Many times it is just making
a commitment to reduce the level of stress in your
life, by taking a few small, but meaningful, steps
toward improving your overall health and well-being.

A good place to begin your stress management plan is
by identifying 5 activities that you really enjoy
participating in. These can be anything from reading a
good book, to taking a long walk on the beach.

If you have hobbies that you enjoy spending time on,
be sure to include these in your list. Other options
could be things you have always wanted to do, but
never got around to, or things that you used to enjoy,
but haven’t had the time for lately.

The one stipulation is that these are activities which
are not related to work, or another source of stress
in your life.

Make a list of at least 2 things that you almost
always do, that you either probably shouldn’t be
doing, or can live without doing. This list can
include things like bringing work home from the
office, doing your teenagers laundry, cooking huge
meals during the week, after working all day etc...

These are things that will not cause the world to fall
apart, if you stop doing them.

Make a list of at least 2 things that you probably
should have done by now, but didn’t. Things you have
been putting off, or problems you have not been
dealing with directly.

If you’ve been meaning to call your insurance agent
for the past few weeks, but haven’t, if you’ve been
thinking about dusting the cob-webs on the front entry
way for a month, but haven’t, write those things down.

At this point your 3 lists will now become a goal
sheet. Your stress management plan will look like this

This week I will

-Spend at least 15 minutes every day doing one of the
things I enjoy. (List the 5 things you wrote earlier
under this section.)

-Eliminate 2 needless tasks from my list of things to
do. (List the 2 things that you wrote earlier under
this section.)

-Tackle 2 things that I have been putting off for a
while. (List the 2 things that your wrote earlier
under this section.)