Today we will discuss an important topic “working under pressure” which you will experience often in your public health career. So, let us see how to work under pressure

1. Prepare a plan: Before starting working in a particular activity, have a team meeting and plan your deliverables. Although, an individual task may vary, an effective team plan may save the time and will help to support each other in case of emergency. You may prepare a timeline with each activity and deliverables. This will help you to complete all your deliverables in a due manner.

2. Set up your priorities:

You might have multiple tasks piled up but you really need to prepare a priority list and divide your work accordingly. This is crucial especially when there will be multiple priority tasks. In that case, stay calm and divide your work within your team. 

3. Avoid procrastination

A really important thing we should maintain is to follow the timeline that we made and avoid Believe me, it will serve you extra time and also will reduce your stress.  procrastinate! Delaying things will only increase your work pressure which will affect the quality of your work later on. 

4. Take a deep breath

Your physical and mental health both are really important, especially more when there is a pile of deadlines. So even under pressure try to take breathing exercise, get up from the desk and have a few steps, these will be really helpful and will soothe your mind. If possible, take a small break and have a nap; this will boost your body to start up again. 

5. Effective communication

This is one of the important skills that you must need while working in the public health sector. Communicate with your team and be sure each of your team members is updated with their tasks. This is important to ensure as a communication gap may exaggerate the burden of work and hinder meeting the deadlines. Don’t forget to give your supervisor a regular update if he/she did not mention it. This will prove your effective communication skill and leadership capacity.   

6. Backup plan

Always think about alternate strategies ahead of time. One of your colleagues might become sick or you might lose the files due to a technical issue. So, think wisely and always set a backup for every task. Archive all the important documents in a drop box or google folder and advise all your team members to do the same. This will be helpful in critical times to support each other. 

7. Be focus and positive

Lastly, it is really difficult to be focused while being under pressure but, try to focus when you are having deadlines. You can avoid destruction such as chatting or meeting anyone and if possible work in a closed door. Try to stay positive, do not think “I cannot finish this” rather than have faith in yourself and say “I can meet the deadlines”

These are a few tips and tricks for working under pressure. Let me know what you think and feel free to add more.

Dr. Mir Nabila Ashraf & Dr. Kamrun Nahar Koly
Women Support Initiative Forum & Bangladesh Society of Women in Public Health