The Great Stationery War of 2016

It all started when I came into work and saw that someone had been at my desk. No, that's not true. They hadn't just been 'at' my desk, but instead had raided and pilfered it of stationery. My stapler had disappeared. My pens were missing. Someone had moved my notebook.

Let the war begin.

 So naturally, I saw red. I gathered my troops. Wars raged. It was decreed that if the culprit was identified, they would be sacrificed on an altar to the gods of Officeworks. Civilisations rose and fell... and then I realised that I'd actually packed everything away the night before so the cleaners could do their thing after I left. Welcome to being so stressed you literally forget what you've done only 14 hours prior.

My official military portrait, painted during the Great Stationery War of 2016.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I'm doing my internship at my usual place of work and in October we have two massive events coming up. The first is our 75th Anniversary Gala Dinner and the second is the Youth and Community Justice Conference, both of which will be attended by high-profile delegates from WA, interstate and overseas. Besides being very involved in planning and coordinating the events, I've been coordinating the group accommodation booking through our accommodation provider - this has been taking up the bulk of my time for the last week, as I've liaised with corporate travel agents and our provider to ensure our delegates receive the highest standard of service possible. On top of a full course load at Uni, this has left me stressed, frazzled and feeling very "on edge" (hence being prepared to go to war - even jokingly - with my incredibly lovely colleagues over stationery). There is definitely a teaching moment thrown in here though: the importance of taking care of yourself.

Will Ferrell has your back.

In our field, not only do we work hard (of course), but when we're representing clients we always need to be 'on'; whether we're fielding calls during a crisis or doing one last check on our clients' social media accounts before we go to sleep, work has the opportunity to begin to take over every waking moment of your life (and sleeping moments too, if you're like me and dream about work). As great and productive as it can make us feel, that's also the fastest way to burn out and start to lose your passion and spark. So, to that end, I've decided to implement two self-care strategies and I thought I'd share them here - maybe they'll help you too.

1. Unless it is a dire emergency, I'm putting my phone down an hour before I'm going to go to bed. No checking emails, no checking social media mentions... nothing. Just tech-free bliss so I get a chance to wind-down and get some 'me' time.

2. I'm putting a ban on caffeine after 3.00pm; after that time, caffeine starts to interfere with a good night's sleep, and the last thing a stressed-out PR practitioner needs is to be sleep-deprived as well. Plus, I find caffeine makes me jittery and anxious if I consume too much - definitely not conducive to being able to switch off!

Tell me, how are you guys coping with the stress of work and uni?

What are your strategies for unwinding and 'switching off'?

Make sure to let me know!

'Til next time,
Jess.