There’s no doubt interior designers are under stress. Demanding clients, vendor mishaps, and last-minute changes can drain even the most organized designer. Fortunately, there’s many ways to keep your sanity amidst the chaos of everyday work. Read the tips below on how to deal with stress in the interior design field.
Mandate A Work/Life Balance
Regardless of whether you work from home or in an office space, it can be hard to separate the two worlds of work and spare time. When it’s your own business—and maybe your baby, the challenge is magnified. It’s hard to know how to deal with stress when you feel like there’s always something to be done, or another email that can’t wait.
It’s important to step outside of this bubble and remember that the work will still be there tomorrow. Interior design is a competitive industry, and its demands stretch many thin, making it easy to feel tapped out. Ensure you dedicate time to yourself, whether it’s design hobbies, dinner dates, or other activities, to give yourself a break.
Don’t make work your entire life. Space is necessary for overall productivity. The reprieve will allow you to come back to yesterday’s problems with a refreshed mind.
Find Your Non-Work Passion
Tied into the work-life balance is finding something to do in your free time. Take up a new activity that allows you to use your creative personality but in a non-work related way. You may even find this hobby changes the way you approach current problems at work.
Art, music, cooking…pick a new hobby you haven’t done before but still falls under the creative umbrella. This new hobby shouldn’t feel like a work duty. While it’s hard not to work, developing a new passion means learning something new that’s still expressive. It’s important to find something just as captivating that’s outside ofregular business responsibilities.
Get Help
It could mean physically hiring someone else to help you, or investing in business management software. The question of how to deal with stress can be solved with a part-time bookkeeper to assist with interior design accounting and related tasks like invoices, expenses, and tracking orders.
The right software helps manage projects from A to Z, streamlining workflow for improved efficiency. Consider mobile capabilities that track your every move, from hours and meetings, to sending orders on the run. There are plenty of options to make it easier to deal with stress, which also increase your firm’sproductivity.
Make Time for the Small Stuff
The small stuff only becomes the big stuff when it isn’t properly looked after. While it may seem like a pain to take five minutes out of your day to record expenses or file receipts, the hour it becomes when you save it for the weekend is even worse.
Micromanaging your own schedule manages this. Setting aside a bit of time each day to invoice clients, track hours, confirm outstanding payments, and take care of other duties won’t seem as overwhelming when they’re penciled in the schedule.
It’s easy to let paperwork build up, but the truth is, having “more times later” is a myth. Create it yourself by scheduling it into your day. With the right organization hacks, you’llbe less stressed and get everything done.
Rethink Your Workspace
Figuring out how to deal with stress is further complicated when your personal workspace is cluttered, or completely non-existent. Organized chaos doesn’t work for a majority of people, and a clutter-free space could be the key necessary to bringing your stress rate down.
A tidy space helps organize thoughts. Create one that’s inviting to work at, where you’ll enjoy sitting.Whether it’s a home office or a rented space, make sure your desk is tidy, inviting—and most of all, motivating—to get the best work done.
