Stress Management? Never Heard of It

There's a lot of advice out there about managing your stress that we all can apply to our lives as writers, but it can also vary from person to person, don't you think? There are three main principles I try to live by to manage my stress:

1. Time management - It never seems like there are enough hours in the day. Too many projects, not enough time to do them. I've always been a fan of organization, but that really only gets me so far. I'm more of a procrastinator. I work better under pressure, but there are times when a checklist comes in handy just for me to keep my head on straight or even a calender reminding me when to do things. I LOVE Outlook on my work computer. Honestly, I like all the different colored bubbles. I even have my writing notes listed in here so I can stay on top of things.

2. Eating right - This is one of the hardest things for me to do because A. I don't have a lot of time to make dinner. B. I'm exhausted when I get home from my full-time job. and C. It's just easier to go to McDonald's. But do you ever feel like your day is dragging on and so are you? When I feel slow, heavy or exhausted that means I need some fruit or if it's serious, I go on a diet. Overeating can mess you up not only weight wise, but mentally as well.

3. You guessed it, exercise. This is the biggest stress reliever out there. Whether it's a walk around the park, running, swimming or biking, any type of exercise will melt that anxiety away. I think the Asics "Sound mind, sound body" campaign visualizes it best for me. One of their commercials show an athlete running while words like "stress", "work", and "anger" melt away into the background. I can't find the commercial, but if I do, I'll post it. It takes a while (a year for me) for a runner to physically be able to relax while running, but once you train your body to that point, exercise is going to melt away all that unwanted anxiety and stress.

Those are the main three, but I need to add what else takes my stress away:

Sprite - I get "ahhhhhhh" moment when I take that first sip of the day :)

Writing - getting all those emotions and scenes down on paper (or laptop in my case) really helps me let go.

Shower - who doesn't like to be clean?

Senses Fail - my all-time favorite band. Not a lot of people can say artists that scream in their music calm them down, but I can. There's something about his voice that makes me relax.

Those are mine, what are your secret ways to rid yourself of stress?