Como você pode gerenciar o estresse em sua carreira de tradução?

There is the cliché "the only difference between fear and excitement is how you breath". Stress is never without a physical sensation, are your shoulders up around your earlobes? Is your jaw clenched? Have a look at your most recent emails and see how your body feels while reading through the good the bad and the ugly and practice taking one good deep breath and bringing your shoulders down, relaxing your face and then take this practice to the even more mundane (driving, whatsapps, stress no matter how small is everywhere!) to really get into the habit of constantly scanning your body.

You know yourself best. What causes you stress? What do you do normally to handle it and continue functioning in spite of it? Know when to stop and adress any issue as it will affect other areas of your life. Create a work-life balance, stop when necessary and learn how to overcome whatever challenge comes your way. We live, learn and evolve.

Time Management: Create a schedule that includes specific work hours, breaks, and personal time. Stick to this schedule to maintain work-life balance. Set Realistic Goals: Establish achievable daily and weekly translation targets. This helps you stay on track and reduces the pressure of looming deadlines. Prioritize Tasks: Identify urgent and important tasks. Focus on completing high-priority translations first, which can reduce stress related to time constraints.

One thing I've found helpful is to pay attention to yourself while translating to know what triggers your stress. In my case: tight deadlines, long work hours, working indoors for long periods, absence of natural light, and the list goes on. So after identifying these factors, you can schedule a healthier work routine that suits your needs, is realistic, and allows for life/work balance. I find that taking breaks every 2 hours, drinking more water than coffee, walking my dog at lunchtime, and exercising before I start and after I finish work helps with my mood, keeps my energy levels high, helps me focus, and keeps me fit! Make sure you plan your days, set priorities, maintain a healthy diet, and engage in jobs that you enjoy!

Here are some strategies to help you cope with the stress that may arise in your translation work: Set Realistic Goals: Ensure that you have clear, achievable goals for each project. Don't overcommit or take on more work than you can handle. This will help you manage your workload and reduce stress. Time Management: Organize your work and create a schedule to manage your time effectively. Use time management tools, like calendars and to-do lists, to keep track of deadlines and priorities. Break Down Projects: Divide large projects into smaller, manageable tasks. This can make the work feel less overwhelming and help you stay focused. I hope this helps! :D

One key "survival tip" from being the sole in-house translator at my employer has been to track demand peaks and troughs to work out when I am not busy and therefore can easily take time off. One approach I have started taking towards the end of the year was to set aside one week's leave to go down to four days a week, and give myself time to decompress before the Christmas break. I would however advise having at least 1 larger period of time off during the year - the regenerative effects are really visible at end of this block of leave.

Always take your time to fully analyze a job before accepting it. It might take a little longer, but it will help you avoid getting stuck in projects with a much lower productivity than you expected. In my experience, there are few things worse than realizing a project will take 5X the time you expected because of some major issue you didn't notice when accepting it.

Before accepting to take on any project, get a calendar or schedule and see how you will manage your time, how many hours you will plan on working daily in order to reach your daily word count and include breaks (meals, running errands, appointments, leisure, REST!). What is the most difficult part of the project and is the deadline set or flexible? Focus on one day at a time and see how much progress you make, then adjust it accordingly.

Be a good communicator and don't work in solitude. I let the client know what I will update them regularly on the progress and ask if I can call or email them to clarify some terms or content in order to better understand. Also join groups of translators, proofreaders, they are plenty and most are quite helpful! Zoom or Team calls are so welcome too :) If you need more time, ask as soon as possible but it should be agreed on at the beginning when negotiating or coming to an agreement. Extra days are a necessity but make sure to give yourself enough time to just let it rest before giving it a final review before sending final version of the project.

A standing desk can be a very worthwhile investment, particularly since translation is a very sedentary profession. Similarly, ensure that your office area is well lit. In addition, remain strict on avoiding eating at your desk, taking regular breaks and moving about. Using countdown timer apps on your computer can be a useful way to ensure regular breaks. Alternatively grab a "Timetimer". Both are better than using a mobile phone, and the distractions that provides. Where you work from home, try to ensure that your office space is separate from living space. Also start and end home working days with a virtual commute, e.g. a walk around the block.

Work-life balance is essential and it is the main way of keeping the stress away. We need to put limits to our work - timings, days off, vacations. Spending time away from work, regular exercises and valuable time with your family will definitely help you keep the stress away and result in higher productivity at work as well.

Resting in regular intervals improves performance. In my personal experience, I feel taking break every hour, listening to soothing music for few minutes and coming back to work,will recharge you and make you more productive At the end of the day this is my strategy, each one would have different ways to unplug themselves to feel rejuvenated.

I have found that a balance board really helps and is an excellent addition to a standing desk, as you are still engaging more muscles than when you are "simply" standing. A recent addition was a treadmill, which has also been a good companion. It doesn't fit with every task or concentration level, but it makes for a nice change, especially on days when breaks are harder to arrange. Don't stock up on water/tea/juice and snacks, but rather make sure you refill your glass frequently - this ensures you get some steps in and some mini-breaks.

It is absolutely a necessity for any of us to work during blocks of time (I work a solid 4 hours say 7 a.m to 11 a.m.) then pause and go out for a walk and do what I need to do, have lunch then work another 4 hours and calling it a day. You must do things that make you happy and yes, work in an environment that is conducive to productivity. The more rested and relax you are, the more it will show in your work. Enjoy life and continue doing what you love to do!

There can be a point, especially mid-career, where it becomes a genuine struggle to find training where you complete it and think "wow, that really was worth it". I am put off by a lot of training courses and seminars, where I feel the trainers are also trying to sell their books, training methods etc. Some of these presentations are now creeping into conferences as covert sales pitches. It is also difficult to justify the networking value alone in many cases. If you use CAT tools, training workshops that helps you get more out of them are definitely worth considering.

Have a thirst for learning and improving. If you learn 1% everyday, imagine what you will have learned in a year! Take a class online, youtube or in real life, you have to make the grey matter work and expand :) They say that knowledge is power right? Isn't that just the truth?

I agree. Speaking as a freelance translator with 3 kids, it was an overwhelming experience for me at the beginning of my freelance career in 2008. I am grateful that my husband has always been supportive with my professional career and we agreed to delegate the tasks that need to be done immediately but don’t need my expertise. I use the Eisenhower Matrix as reference, i.e. figuring out what tasks to focus on next based on urgency and importance. By delegating some tasks to an assistant/housekeeper on-call, I have the time to exercise more (horse riding, archery and swimming), self-love (go to beauty salon, meet with friends), and diversify other income source as a freelance education consultant/teacher to avoid boredom and dependency.

One particular lesson I learned as a freelance translator when I stopped working for agencies and worked for direct customers was to find out about internal budget cycles - particularly about how to exploit them to ensure a more even distribution of payments and also how to assist customers in exhausting leftover translation budget. By adjusting to their cycles also allowed greater predictability of when work would arrive, and to judge when to go on vacation, and when to approach other customers to line up more work.

If you work from home, where possible ensure that you have an office you can close and preferably lock the door to. Ensure that your office doesn't spillover into your "living" area. I include a "virtual commute" in my remote working days - I walk my son to school. I also have a strict ban on "Al desko" lunches, and ensure that I go to the kitchen for lunch. I also have a strict separation of work and private phones and devices, to stop me checking mails late at night.