Stress Management skill: Compartmentalizing

Do you find yourself overwhelmed, stressed, or struggling with burnout? Maybe you have so much on your plate that you feel frustrated most of the day, most of the week?  Have you ever felt emotionally or mentally drained and wish you knew how to manage this stress?  Well, I have a coping skill that may be just what you are looking for.  A skill that will help you balance all that is on your plate and that will help you find relief from stress so that you can go on to enjoy your day, and your week.  I have taught this skill to countless clients in therapy and they have found it immensely helpful.

The skill: Compartmentalizing

This skill is called compartmentalizing and it has helped many people find relief from stress and better able to manage all the things that they need to balance in their lives.  Now, compartmentalizing will not rid you of your stress (that is impossible!  Stress is a normal part of life, it is inevitable.) but compartmentalizing will help you better manage your stress therefore providing you relief. 

How it works

I want you to Imagine all of your responsibilities in your mind.  Now, picture in your mind a dresser/drawer with multiple drawers/compartments in it.  I want you to label each drawer or compartment with one of your responsibilities in each.  Then, I want you to close all those drawers or compartments.  So, it may look something like this, a compartment for:  Work, school, family, social life, significant other, parenting, hobbies, exercise, etc.  Hang in there, we are getting to the good part!

The idea of compartmentalizing is that you can only have one drawer/compartment open at one time.  For example, when you are at work, you are only focused on work; work is the only compartment that is open.  During this time, and only this time, is when you think/deal with the stress that comes with work. You are not focused/thinking about school stress, family stress, or parenting when you are at work.  Now, once you leave work, you close that compartment and focus on (open) the next compartment, and that compartment only.  Maybe that compartment is school.  When you are at school, you are solely focused on school and all the stress that comes with it.  The moment that your mind wanders to work stress, or parenting stress, you close those drawers (in your mind) and refocus only on school.  Maybe you tell yourself a phrase like, “nope, I am at school right now and only focused on school.  Once I leave school, I will open the ‘parenting compartment’ and focus on parenting, but not right now. And then you refocus on school.  

Conclusion

Now, realistically you might have to think about parenting or work when you are at school, or vice-versa, and that’s ok every-once-in-a-while. With compartmentalizing, you are not making this your norm.  Remember, the idea of compartmentalizing is that you are organizing your responsibilities in a way that helps you better manage the stress that comes with them on a daily basis.  Give this skill a try and see if you find it helpful.  If you need help with managing stress, I can help!  Contact me for a free 15-minute consultation.