Over the holidays, I met someone at a cocktail party who impressed me greatly when the conversation turned to managing stress in the workplace. Jeff, a chief financial officer at a major insurance carrier, made a pronouncement to a few of us gathered around the hot artichoke and crab dip. He said that he had managed to reduce his stress level at work considerably by committing to three daily habits: 1) packing a lunch every day (saving money, time and calories!), 2) rarely taking phone calls before noon, returning them instead after lunch (unless, of course, it's the CEO calling), and, the best one as far as I'm concerned, 3) checking e-mails just twice during the day–right after lunch and just before leaving the office.

Jeff found that these adjustments created a minimum of 20 hours per week of uninterrupted time to think, read, plan and strategize. He reports his stress level is now much reduced, and he feels more in control of his time. Music to your ears?

This got me thinking about how much more stress there seems to be on the job these days (especially for those in senior leadership positions!) and ways to manage it better. Researchers Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman suggested in the mid 1980s that stress results from an "imbalance between demands and resources," or as occurring when "pressure exceeds ones perceived ability to cope."

It's safe to say that many of us feel that we just can't meet the demands placed on us with the resources at hand. When asked to do more with less, such as improve patient satisfaction with fewer staff on a tighter budget, it's the rare executive indeed who doesn't succumb to feeling the pressure as it takes its toll, both mentally and physically.

But it's not just major concerns like attaining high patient satisfaction levels that have a tendency to raise blood pressure, producing anxiety and sending one's heart racing. "Persistent little challenges like commuting, unproductive meetings, too many commitments and family arguments can wreak more havoc on your health over time than the intermittent big things," says Dr. Christian Van Den Berg, chair of Executive and International Medicine at the Mayo Clinic Executive Health Program in Jacksonville, Florida. He notes that stress is high on the list of many executives' health concerns.

Patients at the Clinic are asked to keep a stress log–a journal of sorts, listing those people, events, and tasks that make them feel "stressed out" or unable to cope. After doing so for a few weeks, patterns emerge that might not have been so obvious. For instance, an executive may realize after keeping a stress journal that the daily five to ten minute debrief from his assistant every morning is really a 20-minute gossip session that leaves him feeling drained.

Whatever it might be, identifying those factors that add anxiety and stress to your routine is the first step to managing your stress. Once you've identified your stress points, Dr. Van Den Berg says there are four ways to cope:

Accept the situation. Perhaps your commute is a source of stress and frustration, but you like your job and you like where you live. Once you've accepted the fact that you will be in your car for, let's say two hours a day, five days a week, turn your drive time into an opportunity. You might use that time to listen to books on tape (who has time to read for pleasure any more?), learn a foreign language, or voice-record your thoughts, ideas, to-do list or the first chapter of that novel you've promised yourself you'd write someday.

Avoid it. Often, we overlook this possibility. Just because the phone rings, doesn't mean we have to answer it. Find ways to screen out the unnecessary interruptions that get you off track, including e-mail, phone calls, junk mail, unscheduled visits and the like, and make a plan to respond when it's best for you. Jeff, my fellow party guest with all the good ideas, says he ignores all email where he is cc'd. He figures he's only included in the "reply all" because the sender is either too lazy to change it or he is only covering his posterior by including him in the transmission.

Alter it. Yes, change is often the answer to reducing stress. If you suffer from over-committing, for instance, it's time to take stock of how much you can reasonably do during the course of the day, week or month, and adjust accordingly. Many people get caught up in the poor-me-I'm-so-busy routine and forget that they themselves are responsible for managing their time effectively.

Adapt to it. One way to adapt to a stress factor is to take control. In the midst of a chaotic and frustrating afternoon, take a moment to differentiate between what is urgent and what is important. Set your priorities, and do your best to handle situations as they arise. After a particularly stressful period, take a moment to examine what things you could have anticipated, changed or avoided and make note for next time.

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