Posted on September 11, 2016

Unleashing the Power of Neuroscience: Effective Strategies to Reduce Event Coordination Stress.

If you work in the field, know this: event coordination is the fifth most stressful career in 2016. According to the website  CareerCast , which makes annual job rankings. To assess the level of stress, the site takes into account several factors. Such as deadlines, competitiveness, physical demands, environmental conditions, contact with the public and others.

To get an idea of ​​the level of stress involved, the first in the ranking were the enlisted military. With a stress index of 84.78. Next come firefighters (60.59), commercial airline pilots (60.46) and police officers (53.46). ranking – stood at 49.93.

This job consumes me…

According to the website, the demands of the public and participants are among the factors that make the job of coordinating events so stressful. That’s a statement all event planners can agree with without hesitation. Which is why, incidentally, the use of an application for events is always so well regarded by organizers, as InEvent customers  attest .

A survey was conducted in the UK in 2015. Of professionals in the events sector it indicated that 83% thought that stress is a significant issue. With weeks that can reach 50 to 60 hours of work. Workers in the sector heard complain about the lack of breaks (58%), while 67% believe they work too much.

There are several recommendations for reducing stress in the events sector. If you’ve tried them all, maybe it’s time to try neuroscience and Alex Kord’s curious recommendations. University of California researcher and author of The Upward Spiral. The work is dedicated to teaching simple habits to reverse depression, based on principles of  neuroscience .

How to overcome stress at work in the events sector?

In an interview with  Time magazine , Korb states that simple habits can be cultivated to raise your level of happiness:

Smile and wear sunglasses 

Smiling is a way of “fooling” your brain, which tends to assume that everything is fine. When you flex your muscles to smile, thanks to feedback mechanisms. How your brain receives constant information from your body. If it receives indications relating to a positive emotion, it will trigger hormonal responses to this stimulus.

Sunglasses go along the same lines. With them, you will wrinkle the muscles around your eyes less due to the brightness, a signal that the brain interprets as concern. And Korb adds that the sunglasses still have the advantage of making him look really cool.

Think about your goals

Just think about them, that’s all. The argument is that thinking about your long-term goals will make your brain have a greater sense of control and accomplishment and release dopamine, the hormone involved in controlling mood, movement, emotions, memory and learning.

Sleep well

This advice is not exactly new. Sleep is one of the first victims of stress or other problems such as depression. Korb recommends bedtime rituals and, if possible, going to bed at more or less fixed times to prepare the brain for sleep.

Listen to music (from a happy time)

One of the powerful effects of music, according to neuroscience, is to awaken memories of the time when it was heard. Therefore, the choice of music must be careful. So you don’t end up remembering the dump you got as a teenager or the party you left with no one to dance with.

avoid procrastinating

The idea here is that postponing tasks creates stress, which in turn reduces control of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for long-term, more rational thinking. The advice is to beat procrastination. Initiating a small step to accomplish the task, which will reduce stress and prompt the cortex to regain control.

walk in the morning

This isn’t the most original piece of advice either. Everyone knows that exercise fights stress. According to the researcher, walking in the sun brings benefits to night sleep. It also favors the release of serotonin, which regulates functions such as sleep, appetite and mood. For Korb, if the walk is done with a friend, even better – it will provide, in addition to the other advantages, the social connection.