62: How Stress Can Make You MORE Productive!

Stress is bad for your health, right?

The answer is yes… and no.

The truth is a little bit of stress is actually good for you. It can help you solve your procrastination problem!

Today on The Bold Life I’ll explain how to use stress to increase your productivity!

How Much Is Too Much Vacation?

You know that stress can lead to negative physical symptoms …

Poor sleep quality
Headaches
Tension
Stomach problems
Weight gain

… and stress can have negative effects on your mind, too!

It makes your brain less efficient
You’re more easily distracted
It impacts your memory

But here’s the thing – your brain actually needs a certain level of stress to operate at it’s best!

Think of the last time you went on vacation. (Thanks to COVID – you might have to think way back). You were sipping a pinna colada on the beach, listening to the waves crashing, and divulging in pure relaxation. Ahhh.

Have you ever noticed that laying on the beach is amazing for the first few days, but later in your vacation you start to get antsy? You start looking for things to do, or you’re tempted to check your email, or you’re sick of watching the same wave crash over and over?

This is because your brain needs a certain amount of stimulation – or stress – to function well.

When Vacation Is Over And You’re Back To Work

Or how about this situation… have you ever had a project at work that wasn’t due for awhile or didn’t have a set deadline?

As a small business owner myself, I have a lot of work that falls into this category. Of course there are things that need to get done every week, like podcast episodes and social media posts. But a lot of my tasks don’t really have a deadline.

Right now I’m putting together a new online course focused on how to increase your productivity at work. Although I’d love to launch it in September – stay tuned for details! – I haven’t really set a deadline.

And when there’s no deadline, it’s really easy to procrastinate.

Here’s why:

You have no real push
There isn’t a set schedule
There’s a lack of motivation
It’s easy to say “I’ll do it tomorrow”

As the deadline gets closer, you start to feel more pressure. “Oh crap, how am I actually going to get this done?”. This bit of pressure can increase in your motivation and help you get started.

Until your deadline gets too close, you’ve procrastinated for far too long, and now that pressure has turned into stress, overwhelm, and the anxiety of not having enough time to make your deadline.

Zero Stress Is Not Good

There’s a famous psychology study by two researchers called Yerkes & Dodson who found that when it comes to your brain, zero stress is not good but too much stress is also a problem.

Imagine a graph with a line that looks like an upside-down U. Across the bottom of the graph is your stress, which increases the further you go across the chart. Up the side of the chart is your productivity. The higher you go up the graph the more productive you are.

Let’s start at the bottom left of the chart. You have no pressure and no stress, which means that you also have no productivity because your brain doesn’t have any motivation. At this point on the graph, you feel:

Bored
Lacking energy
No excitement

Low pressure and stress make it hard for your brain to get motivated. This is procrastination station.

Now let’s look at the bottom right of the cart. This is also a danger zone. You have really high pressure, but also low productivity. When you’re stress level is too high and you’re at this point in the graph you feel:

your mind is going a million miles a minute saying things like “Oh my gosh I’m never going to get this done in time”,
and your body is reacting with tension and poor sleep
with all of those resources spent, you have none left to focus, to problem solve, or to perform at your best.

The Sweet Spot

The goal is hit the stress sweet spot right in the middle!

The middle is where there’s just enough stress and pressure that your brain can kick your butt into gear and start working. This means no more procrastination and being bored! And it’s also where there’s not too much stress to overwhelm you.

You’ll know you’re at the sweet spot when you have just enough pressure to feel motivated, but not too much pressure that you feel overwhelmed. This is where you can do your best work!

3 Strategies If You’re Stuck At The Bottom (Lacking Motivation and Pressure)

1. Make deadlines for yourself.

Deadlines work great to boost motivation and stop procrastination. It’s even more important to stick to those deadlines! Set them and stick to them.

2. Mix it up and take breaks.

If you’ve been working for awhile and you can feel your motivation starting to fizzle, then you probably need a break! Watch a few funny cat videos or take a walk, but make sure you set a time limit so that you can come back and stay on track. Taking a break gets your brain out of that energy slump.

3. Give yourself a reward!

Your brain is way more motivated by rewards rather than punishments. Rewards send a rush of happy neurotransmitters throughout you brain, which means your brain is saying “woohoo, this feels great!”. These rewards can be small, but they give your brain something to look forward to and something to work towards.

When you’re on the bottom of the motivation curve it’s important to pump up your brain by adding some stress, motivation, and pressure with goals, deadlines, and rewards.

3 Strategies If You’re Stuck At The Other End (Too Much Pressure)

1. Change you circumstances.

To take some of the pressure off yourself. This could be asking for help, making it a team project, or asking for an extension on your deadline. Another helpful tip is to break up your project into baby steps so that it’s less overwhelming for your brain. Every step counts and it’s fun to check each step off.

2. Again – Take breaks!

Remember how many resources your brain is using when you feel totally stressed out. Taking a break can free up some of those resources and calm your body and mind. A walk outside is the perfect cure and there’s actually research that shows some serious benefits of reducing stress while you’re in nature.

3. Reminding yourself that the world is not going to end if you don’t do it perfectly.

Your brain is probably telling you, “If I don’t finish this then I’ll…

get fired
upset my boss
have let everyone down
be a failure”

All of these worst-case scenarios are running through your mind – and they’re very unlikely to even be true! And even if the worst-case scenario does happen and you lose your job, you also need to remind yourself that you are a strong and competent person and you’ll be able to figure out the next steps.

Want More?

You have your own unique style when it comes to handling stress and pressure, and that style determines the strategies that will work best for you when it comes to getting things done. Take my free stress personality quiz on my website www.drnicolebyers.com to get personalized tips based on your unique style to help you feel less overwhelmed, more in control, and even more productive.

Also make sure to subscribe to The Bold Life so that you never miss an episode (or blog post!)

Show Highlights

[01:14] How bad is stress and when is stress good for you?

[02:44] Your brain needs a quota of stress to function well.

[06:37] The stress sweet spot to get the most work done effectively.

[07:21] Strategies for hitting the best pace for efficiency without being overly stressed.

[08:41] Why your brain is motivated by rewards.

[12:20] Styles that work best for you to get the job done.

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