Managing Stress When Everything Feels Like Too Much

It’s that time of the year when you may be easily triggered. If you have to answer that same question one more time—that’ll make twenty—you may have to have a difficult conversation with a parent, colleague, or student… or maybe there’s no milk in the fridge when you get home, and you’re dying for a cup of tea!

You’re up at 5am, like I am now writing this blog, trying to organise and plan because you can’t sleep with the sheer amount of work in front of you.

So, how do you manage the stress?

I try to plan the bits I can. I try not to bring too much work home with me (normally). I listen to an audiobook on my commute—I can’t wait to get into the car to catch up on my current Jodi Taylor book. I have a nice smelly diffuser in my room. Sometimes I play music, and I always have a small treat lined up for later. Right now, I’m making my way through Only Murders in the Building—hilarious! I know I’m late to that party, but my youngest and I are enjoying watching it together.

But seriously, when things get a little tougher and I don’t have anyone I can rant to—when I know I can’t say what I’m actually thinking out loud and I need someone to bounce it off—I use the Stress Coach App I designed.

It has helped me through many a difficult situation.

Good to know: No one has access to the conversations you have with that Custom GPT, so your issues remain private.

This time last year, I was hospitalised. I was back in school for one day and ended up in hospital again—nothing to do with school ;-). Anyway, I was so stressed about the planning I should have been leading in school that I was at the computer at 3am. By 4am I had drafted an email to our core team about what needed to be done, along with the advice that I wouldn’t be looking at emails until the following Monday and would likely be back in school to deal with any issues then.

It granted me the space I needed to focus on recovery. The app really helped see me through a tough time.