Tips For Managing Workday Stress
We all get frazzled at work from time to time, but letting it get the better of you can take its toll on your mental and physical health.
In this article, we’ll look at several ways to manage your stress at work.
1 – Recognize the problem
As with many things in life, recognizing that an issue exists is an integral part of the process. Many hard workers feel that stress is just part of the job and that to be successful, you must be able to ignore it completely.
Instead, realize that excess stress is a severe issue. The build-up of stress can result in burnout, where you feel emotionally exhausted, cynical, and fail to recognize your personal accomplishments.
It’s been shown there’s a significant association between stress-related burnout and both depression and anxiety, two serious medical conditions.
2 – Identify the principal causes of stress in your workplace
Take a more active approach to recording what is causing you to feel stressed each day. For around a week, track things that make your stress levels grow. Record what happened, how it made you feel, and what you did to try to lower your stress levels again.
You will identify all the reasons your work is causing you to feel stressed. This will be the basis of your action plan to reduce stressors.
3 – Time management
Coping with a heavy workload requires excellent time management. At the start of each week and day, write a lot of priorities and a general map of what you’ll get done.
Set aside certain portions of the day where you won’t be disturbed from your work. These deep concentration sessions can be the bulk of your productivity.
4 – Breaks
You need pauses throughout the workday to reset. If you’re struggling to find these breaks, set a specific timetable where you’ll get away from your desk for a few minutes to recharge. You can set a timer on your watch or screen to remind you to take a little break and stretch your legs.
5 – Respect your work-life balance
It’s increasingly difficult to get away from work even when you’re meant to be clocked off. With screens everywhere in front of us every hour of the day, it’s easy for a work email or seemingly urgent task to pull you away from your free time. Feeling like you’re always on-call can cause a heap of stress to build up.
Establish rules for yourself about when and where you’ll check work emails or answer the phone. Very few situations are actually as pressing as they first seem.
6 – Take care of yourself
Make sure you have enough time for fun in your life. Get enough sleep. Eat healthily. Get some exercise. Learn some relaxation techniques. Take a vacation from time to time. If you don’t do these things, your work performance will drop, and your stress levels will rise.
These are just some of the ways to begin sorting out your stress levels. Surround yourself with people you love, let go of perfectionism, and discuss your stressors with your boss. And if stress begins to be just too much for you, seek out therapy or counseling.
