Feeling the end-of-the-year crunch? Manage the stress by understanding this formula: D > CS = SR. Translation: When demands are greater than coping skills, you have a stress reaction.

Let’s look at each of these factors.

Demands can be placed into three categories:

• Family—Caring for family members, maintaining your home, paying bills, cooking, shopping, and other errands.
• Work—Managing duties, assignments, and projects; learning new software; and interacting with coworkers.
• Personal—Taking care of mind and body to stay healthy and managing income to cover expenses and build savings.

Coping skills are the approaches you use to manage demands. They can be divided into four categories:

• Self-management—Setting goals, prioritizing tasks, making timely decisions, resolving conflicts, and eating healthy.
• Exercise—Walking, jogging, playing sports, lifting weights, and any activity that keeps your body in shape.
• Relaxation—Yoga, reading, watching sports events, doing puzzles, and any other hobbies that help calm or focus your mind.
• Support systems—Friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, and others who you can go to for help and advice.

When demands exceed coping skills, you might experience one or more of these stress reactions:

• Behavioral—yelling, arguing, and shutting down.
• Physical—headaches, stomach aches, insomnia, and muscle stiffness.
• Psychological—anxiety, depression, mood swings, and difficulty concentrating.

Stress makes it hard to address demands, since it impairs your ability to focus, process information, meet deadlines, and make good decisions.

To cut down on stress, reduce demands or improve your coping skills. Or do a combination of both.

Reduce demands—Ask yourself, what would happen if you stopped doing certain tasks? Can some tasks be delegated?

Improve coping skills—Schedule time for your favorite activities. Set up visits with friends or a date night with a partner. Plan a vacation.

Finally, lean on your support group. This can be a formal group or friends and mentors whose advice you trust. They can recommend coping strategies and time-management tips.

For more advice, read “The Formula You Need to Manage Stress.”