By Amy Evans, AICP

Planners tend to hold nuanced and even conflicting points of view, but one thing we all seem to agree on wholeheartedly is that the profession – and life in general – is more demanding than ever. On one hand, it’s no surprise. As Neuroscience News reported in November 2023, “the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has instigated a silent surge in stress and mental health issues among Americans.” Post-pandemic, it often feels like financial strain, political and social conflict, and endless electronic stimuli have come together to shorten everyone’s fuses.

On the other hand, there’s a case to be made that planners, especially those who view what they do as serving the public good, are likely to ignore their own stress in order to better serve their communities. While well-intentioned, this mindset can chip away at our physical health and contribute to burnout and compassion fatigue. A more effective approach involves actively acknowledging stress and learning tools to manage (at least some of) the anxious, overwhelmed, frustrated, uncomfortable, tense, and unhappy feelings it can leave us with.

The good news is that there are many easy things you can do, regardless of your age, experience, or daily routine, to boost your ability to cope with stress. The “bad” news is that these tools work better when they rest on a foundation of sleeping enough, eating well, and exercising regularly. Even so, the best time to start upping your coping ability is now; a lifestyle overhaul is not required before you can begin to boost your ability to cope.

Most people develop and use coping skills from a young age without necessarily thinking of them as such, so a good first step is to think about how your day-to-day behaviors may be related to stress. You’ll likely catalog healthy ones like getting in a bike ride, listening to music, or treating yourself to something you enjoy. You may find that you resort to less effective tools, too, like drinking or smoking to excess, falling back on inappropriate humor or anger, arguing with loved ones, and/or detaching emotionally from friends and family. If you’d like a structured approach, many free coping skills trackers are available online.    

As you develop a sense of what sparks stress for you and how you’re already coping, you can also explore adding more healthy coping skills to your toolbox. Pay attention to the situations that spark significant stress for you and begin to cluster coping strategies around them. For example, if you tend to feel overwhelmed or angry when clients or members of the public express displeasure, you can bulk up on conflict resolution strategies that facilitate setting boundaries while maintaining a professional demeanor. Another strategy might be having fidget toys readily available to help release nervous energy immediately after a negative encounter. A third might be making a point to connect with a friend who has a sympathetic ear later that evening.

When looking to augment your coping skills, mindfulness techniques are worth their weight in gold. Mindfulness is an important skill to cultivate because it allows us to separate who we are from the thoughts we have and the emotions we feel, an activity that can help restore focus and deescalate intense emotions. Mindfulness techniques run the gamut from very simple visualizations and breathwork you can do discreetly in any location to guided meditations and other practices intended to build skill over time; the most important advice is to try a variety. Not every technique will resonate with every person, so you will likely want to try different ones over time to see what works well for you.  

Ultimately our ability to cope boosts our resiliency to adversity, which in turn supports our ability to perform in our jobs and careers without an undue cost to overall health and wellness. If resiliency still seems too big to get a handle on, start with this, right now: Grab a sheet of paper or open up your phone’s notes app and jot down three positive things you can do to take care of yourself after a rough day. Refer to them occasionally, grow the list, and, most importantly, do them when you need to.