We hear from Martin Wade, General Manager, Fresh, on how sport and creating visuals help him stay on top of things.
What does good mental health mean to you?
For me good mental health is about being in a stable mindset for the majority of your time each day and not be in a state of low mood, anxiety, or depression for prolonged periods. We will all experience these feelings at times and sometimes these are normal feelings depending on your situation or life events, however it’s about being able to carry on and not let these feelings progress into a constant part of your daily life.
What do you do to stay on top of things?
For me health and fitness has always played a big part in my life, from playing semi pro football for many years, boxing in the ABA’s, and now training towards competing in power lifting, I have found being active is very important for me to keep on top of my mental health.
When it comes to managing stress in my work life, I have to be organised, I make to-do lists each day and work through them in priority order which helps me keep on top of dead lines, feel in control, and always have information at hand when requested.
I also reduce stress by spending time creating visual systems of working, mainly around targets, key priorities, and things that are used daily which all helps ensure key information, targets and important documents etc are easily at hand when required. I believe that spending more time on creating these areas early on pays dividends in reducing stress in the long term.