PR is a brilliant industry to be in - it’s fast-paced, no two days are the same and you quickly develop new skills by being exposed to so many different things at once. It’s so rewarding when you achieve that national piece of coverage or come up with a new creative campaign that really impresses your client.
However, the process required for achieving great results can be stressful – it can be hard to predict the results of your hard work, even if there are set KPIs in place. As PR professionals, we balance the needs of lots of different people – the client, the media, the target audience and the team. It’s a lot to manage at once.
With May being Mental Health Awareness Week, it’s important that those of us living the busy PR life to take a moment to think about how we’re really coping and what we can do to reduce our stress levels.
As a Comms Consultant at a London-based digital marketing agency called TopLine Comms, I specialise in Science PR and Engineering PR. Here are some tips on how to manage stress when living the busy PR lifestyle:
Speak up when it’s too much
We’ve all been there – deadlines coming out of your ears, back to back meetings all morning with phones ringing and it’s not even 9am! Sometimes it can just feel too much, and as if the to-do list never ends. I know for me personally that this is definitely when the stress starts to creep in.
The best thing to do when feeling overwhelmed like this is to speak to your line manager. If you work on multiple clients or projects that they aren’t involved in, it may be the case that they’re not aware of how much you have going on. If you don’t speak up and tell them, then they’ll never know. If you have a good line manager, they should sit down and discuss capacity with you and how to make your workload more manageable.
It can seem scary to ask for help at first (especially when you’re first starting out in PR) because you don’t want to seem incapable. But it’s much better to ask for help than miss an important deadline because you didn’t get around to it.
The only real mistake you can make when starting out in PR is not asking for help when you need it. Success has a lot to do with how much you’re enjoying your job, and if it feels overwhelming and no fun at all, you won’t be performing at your best.
A mistake is not a failure, it’s an opportunity to learn
When I make a mistake (note that I said when, not if, because we all make mistakes) my stress levels go through the roof. For example, during my first few weeks in PR, I sent out a press release with an error in the client’s name. You can imagine the horror realising only once it had gone out to my entire media list… But, guess what? Everyone survived, we managed the situation and I’ve never done it again.
The best way to handle the stress that comes with making a mistake is to change your outlook on it. Yes, you messed up - but if you learn from it (in my case, the lesson learnt was the importance of proofreading) then it was an experience worth having. And remember, although it may seem like it at the time, it’s not the end of the world.
Keep that work-life balance
Sometimes it can feel like working in PR is all-consuming, because if you don’t reply to that email that gets sent at 10pm, who will? But that isn’t the right attitude. You must try and draw a line to make sure that work doesn’t take over your life.
So, make sure you have the right work-life balance. There will be times where you might have to work late or go in early (especially if you’re working with international clients) but make sure that when you sign off for the day, you spend some time doing what makes you happy. Cook a nice dinner, go for a walk, go to the gym, see your friends and family, binge- watch Netflix, read that book you’ve been meaning to start - whatever it is, make sure to have some time where you switch off from work. Life’s too short to just be stressing about work all the time.
Mental health is important all year round, but awareness weeks serve as a nice reminder to think about it a little more. If you’re struggling, reach out to your colleagues and take some time to yourself – because the happier you are, the better your work.