Bernskiold Media

Stressing down

In recent weeks I have noticed that I’m becoming more and more stressed out due to everything that is on my plate. I have found that all things in school worry me a lot and all that worry really drains my energy, meaning that I don’t get half as much done. While I do promise to go and talk to someone who knows this stuff and see if they have any tips for this, I feel there are a few things I can do in my life that will help with this and I think this can be the same for many freelancers and designers with me. Here are three.

Utilising the Power of Relaxation

Something that I’m really, really bad at is knowing the power of relaxation. After having just one weekend totally free while being away at a family get-together, I found how nice it was to have this sporadically planned weekend. What surprised me the most was that I woke up at 8 a.m (on a weekend mind you) feeling awake and alive. Perhaps it is a combination of being rested and the spring coming. What I figure though is that by making sure I go to bed in a good enough hour, I can feel rested in the morning, as early as 8 a.m instead of waking up at ten and be tired until four or five in the afternoon. Plus, the mind works better when relaxed.

Starting Work Early!

If I know I have a bigger project due sometime in the little more distant future, I tend to push that up and leave it hanging, knowing the deadline. When the deadline starts creeping up on me, I mostly get stressed and guess what…leave it hanging! This in turn causes me more stress and the bad cycle is on! I say this all the time, especially to myself, but here it goes again: Start projects early, try to finish them early and work a little at them, often! This will be a feel good key. Firstly you feel that you are really getting work done, plus you have started so you don’t have it hanging there and since you are working on it, you don’t feel the deadline as tight in the neck. By being done early you can get a large boost of confidence and I am absolutely certain that you will feel very positive and happy about yourself.

Spending more time with other hobbies!

I realise that this ties in strongly with the first point but I can’t stress this enough! Myself, I have a number of different hobbies like photography and music. I play two instruments and I can really take a lot more time to practise and play to not only get better in them but also to clear my mind off the more work oriented hobby that design and media is for me. Photography also gives a clear break even though being closely related to the visual arts, it is something that I just don’t do commercially and is pure relaxation!