If you are a working person, you are well aware of the stress in the workplace. Projects, reports, deadlines – everything is trying to devour you. Even, someday you don’t want to get out of bed anymore. You feel lethargic and lazy. It seems you have been drained out of all your energies. That is the symptom of stress. If you are subject to it, you must find some Ways To Manage Stress.
While stress at work is a common factor, finding a low-stress job is hard and impossible to some extent. A more realistic approach is to adopt some effective management strategies to decrease stress at your present job.
Ways To Manage Stress
1. Make a Pre-Work Plan
After rushing to get the kids fed & off to school, tackling traffic & combating household chores, & guzzling a cup of coffee instead of a hearty breakfast, many people reach work already stressed. This makes them more responsive to stress in the workplace.
You are more likely to be affected by workplace stress when you have a stressful morning. When you start the day with solid planning, good nutrition, & a positive mindset, the stress of your job is more manageable. Plan your day & think about how to decrease stress at the beginning.
2. Act Instead Of React
We experience stress when we feel situations are out of our control. It triggers the stress hormone and, if prolonged, damages confidence, concentration & overall well-being. You must ascertain the aspects of the current situation you can control & aspects you can’t.
Normally, you are in control of your actions & reactions but not in control of outside elements or someone else’s response. Be responsible for the actions of your part & give your best shot to control whatever you can.
3. Take Short Breaks
One of the excellent Ways To Manage Stress is taking frequent short breaks. If you work continuously without breaks, you will start to feel exhausted. Exhausted people are more prone to stress. If exhausted, you will be unable to concentrate & produce effective outcomes. Inefficiency will work as an added factor to increase stress.
After working for one hour or two, take a 10-minute break. Leave your desk & go for a little walk, have a cup of coffee with a colleague, plug in your earphone & listen to some of your favorite tracks or podcasts or read a book or magazine. Take a complete break from your current activity. When you return to your desk after a break, you will feel more focused & less stressed.
4. Organize Your Office Space
An organized desk or neat cubicle can bring down the amount of workplace stress significantly. If you always have to work at a messy desk or dirty cubicle, it will affect your mental health & increase stress. Not getting vital things in proper time can also trigger stress.
Suppose your superior asks for the report you know you completed making but can’t find in the stack of papers on your desk. Or you can’t find your stapler to staple a bunch of documents that need to be dispatched. These things can create stress. All these can be avoided if you keep your desk or cubicle tidy.
A tidy desk, with all documents well organized, with a photo of your family or your favorite bonsai in a tiny pot, is not only visually pleasing. It brings much-needed mental tranquility to work in an already stressful environment.
5. Eradicate Interruptions & Distractions
Almost all of us are bombarded during the day. Emails, phone calls, instant messages, app notifications & sudden, urgent duties & deadlines make today’s workers more distracted than ever. You may not have full control over the distractions & interrupters, but you can control your response.
Almost 90% of distractions are caused by the thing, which was created to make our life easier, mobile phones. While working on something vital, you can keep your phone in flight mode.
However, you might miss anything vital in that way. Turn the internet off & ask your colleagues or family not to call or message you in a particular period unless it is important. The more you can eradicate interruptions & distractions, the more you will be productive & less stressed.
6. Plan Your Work Schedule
Planning your work schedule in advance is an excellent answer to How to Cope with Stress at Work. You should do that even before you hit the desk. You think about the work that needs to be done & note them in a diary, notebook, or smartphone. After noting the tasks down, arrange them according to their significance.
Work according to the list. Finish the tasks with utmost urgency & significance first, then move down the list. This way, you can ensure vital tasks are being taken care of first & you are not jumping between tasks. Indulging in unproductive tasks does no good & adds stress. Avoid it at any cost.
7. Don’t Multitask
In the current workplace, multitasking is often seen as a skill & virtue. In reality, it is counterproductive. When you are trying to multitask, you are just jumping between tasks & producing incomplete results. If you try to do various works at once, your focus & dedication will be divided. You won’t be able to focus on something entirely.
If you are talking over the phone while typing an email, chances are you will make some typos or grammatical & information errors in the mail & won’t be able to talk on the phone properly. As a result, there will be a communication gap & you will be proven an ineffective & casual worker. That’s why it is wise to focus on a single task at hand to complete it with a satisfactory outcome.
8. Practice Meditation
Practicing meditation is an excellent way to bring down stress levels. In meditation, you need to focus on your breath & control your ever-wandering mind. This technique can significantly let you control your mind & stress level. Meditation brings many mental & physical benefits. Decreasing stress is just one of them.
If you need clarification on the process, you can ask an instructor. There are many free tutorials available online. Make use of them. Regular meditation for as little as 15-20 minutes daily can do wonders.
How Does Work Stress Affects Overall Well-Being?
Long-term experience with work-related stress can affect mental & physical health. Research associates burnout with indications of anxiety & depression. In some cases, this establishes a foundation for serious mental health problems.
One study proves younger people who regularly face heavy workloads & great time pressure on the job are more likely to experience major mental disorders & general anxiety disorders.
Higher stress levels at work & personal lives can affect physical health, too. Recurring triggers of the fight-or-flight response can disturb bodily systems & upsurge vulnerability to disease. Chronic stress can also affect health by hampering healthy behaviors like exercise, healthy eating, & sleep.
Work-related stress can also damage companies. Burnout decreases job output & increases nonattendance & job turnover, and causes conflict between colleagues, causing stress to spread within a work environment. To avoid such things, one must explore Ways To Manage Stress.
FAQs
Q: If I take frequent breaks in the workplace, would it portray me in a bad light?
A: Everyone is entitled to breaks. If you are working hard & long enough, you can take small breaks.
Q: Can smoking make me relaxed & bring down stress?
A: Some people think that way, but in reality, addiction to tobacco does more harm than good.
Q: What happens if Ways To Manage Stress becomes ineffective to me?
A: In that case, you can consult a counselor. An experienced practitioner can point out your reasons for stress more accurately & treat it accordingly.
