How to deal with pressure?
What to do and how to win, when timelines are tight and stakes are high
Hey there,
Things are heating up at Bunch as we go into this very important year for us and thus performing at our best and delivering good results every day is one of my highest priorities. Not only for myself but first and foremost for the team. For me, when stakes rise and timelines get shorter, it’s time to buckle down and make sure that the whole team keeps focus, has tactics on how to manage pressure, and rest to perform at peaks. This is not a new topic to me, during my time as a Ph.D. student, I studied performance under pressure.
So I was excited to dive back into the question of how to turn pressure into a catalyzer and accelerator, rather than a blocker. Here is what I found:
How to perform under pressure 💪
Make sure you have resources:
👉 Job-Demands Resources-Model by Eva Demerouti & Arnold Bakker
Top Take-Away: The balance between the job resources and the job requirements determines whether you feel energized by your job or if you are strained (and risk low performance and/or burnout)
Make sure you rest consistently:
👉 Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students by Kana Okano, Jakub R. Kaczmarzyk, Neha Dave, John D. E. Gabrieli & Jeffrey C. Grossman
Top Take-Away: Overall, better quality, longer duration, and greater consistency of sleep correlated with better performance. However, there was no relation between sleep measures on the single night before a test and test performance; instead, sleep duration and quality for the month and the week before a test correlated with better performance.
Learn from athletes:
👉 Performing Under Pressure — 9 Ways Great Athletes Make It Count, When It Counts Most by Simon Boulter
Top Take-Away: Trust your game, remind yourself that you deserve to succeed, you deserve to be here.
Tips from the Bunch AI coach:
Check out Managing a Crisis Without Freaking Out by Damian Badazona, Founder of Situation Interactive
Have a great week and let me know what works for you when the heat is on!
Darja