Day 23/30: Handling stress as a product manager 😌
Stress is inevitable; suffering due to our stress is optional
Being at the center of all the people, activities, and decisions behind a whole product, we product managers need to practice getting better at how we handle stress.
Stress is defined as a feeling of emotional or physical tension.
From its literal meaning, there is no positive or negative connotation attached to it.
What’s your relationship with stress? Do you see it as detrimental or helpful?
If you view stress as your adversary, I recommend watching this 15-minute TED Talk about befriending stress. It reset my perspective on stress.
How do you know you’re feeling stressed? What happens to your body? What kinds of thoughts and feelings come to mind?
For me:
I lose my appetite and forget to eat.
I hold onto tension in my shoulders and upper back.
I experience depressive spirals more often and more easily.
My thoughts become more binary.
My ability to empathize with others goes down.
Make your personal list of signs and symptoms. This will better help you recognize the onset of stress in yourself, which is the first step in learning how to manage your stress—instead of stress controlling your life.
Experiment with different techniques to figure out what best helps you manage your stress.
For me, these activities help me get back to my physical or psychological baseline:
Engaging in physical activity,
Getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night,
Connecting with people at work and in life,
Spending time in nature,
Listening to music,
Cleaning my living space,
Writing the tasks I need/want to do down and scheduling them into my calendar, and
Journaling.
Inevitably, we all experience stress throughout our lives. It’s up to us to decide how we want to respond to it and coexist with it.