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In today's tough economy, as budgets shrink and staff numbers dwindle, knowledge workers are being asked to do more with less,

Mounting pressures, along with prospects of an uncertain future, are elevating stress and anxiety levels, according to experts on workplace issues.

They say it's imperative to promptly recognize and effectively combat these negative states, as they could impair performance, erode personal fulfillment, and interfere with workplace relationships.

IT professionals – and all knowledge workers – need to recognize signs of stress and overload and deal with these, says Baha Habashy, a partner at Intergrity+ Consulting in Markham, Ont.

But alleviating stress should not itself be stressful, he says, and suggests simple steps any knowledge worker can immediately implement to get on track.

Chunk it down

Effectively organizing the day's tasks is one of these.

Employees, he says, need to adopt a "batch processing" mindset, allocating blocks of time to specific tasks. For instance, they could schedule checking e-mail once or twice a day, set aside another chunk of time for attending to requests, and so on.

Indeed, time for thinking and planning should also be penciled in, says Habashy, as this is indispensable for processing ideas and correctly prioritizing.

He suggests putting all thinking and planning time in one block each day. "Spend an hour figuring out which tasks are most important and what needs to be tackled first."

Reducing physical and electronic clutter is also vital, the Integrity+ Consulting executive says.

This means adopting a workable system for handling e-mail messages, documents, and business cards.

In this context, he says, the importance an effective filing system for projects should not be underestimated. Filing, he says, should be based on roles and objectives rather than mechanical criteria, such as alphabets or numbers.  

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