You love your career and even knew beforehand it could be stressful at times. However, lately, the stress has seemed overwhelming. And to add to the pressure, you’re struggling to maintain your composure and professionalism while you work through it. Thankfully, there are many techniques on how to relieve stress at work that can have you not only surviving but thriving in your stressful role. So, let’s get to it.
What to do when stressed at work
Admit you’re stressed
Stressed workers are three times more likely to leave their jobs than their non-stressed counterparts. Yet, people often don’t want to accept they are stressed out until it’s too late. Waiting until you are ground down until you are almost coming apart at the seams makes it much harder to recover.
So be on the lookout for signs that you are getting emotionally exhausted and weary. And don’t underestimate how stress is affecting you.
Name your stressors
To get a handle on the problem, you have to identify what exactly is bothering you. Only then can you develop a strategy to either resolve it or learn how to manage and live with it. Try keeping a journal for a week or so. Record any stressful situations and your reactions to them. Then think of some ways you can resolve the issue.
Explore different ways to stay calm
At times, even the most mentally strong individuals run into mounting pressures that can readily turn into profound stress. Try a couple of the coping strategies below to stay emotionally grounded. The best part is they only take a few minutes a day, but the rewards can be long-lasting.
- Practice deep breathing exercises
- Try yoga or meditation
- Take frequent daily breaks
Take care of your body
Often, relieving stress at work starts the night before or before you even leave for work. Here are a few areas you can focus on:
- Using food for fuel
- Getting plenty of sleep but also paying attention to the quality of sleep
- Exercise regularly
When you stress your body with bad nutrition, sedentary lifestyles, and poor sleep hygiene, you can’t expect to be strong enough to handle the stress of modern-day work demands and lifestyles. On the other hand, successful people are intentional about taking care of themselves physically which, helps them to remain calm under pressure.
Fine-tune your time management skills
A significant cause of stress is poor time management. If you’re a busy executive, you know the feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to get things done.
Time management can be easy as long as you commit to taking action. Some simple steps to help you manage your time more effectively are:
- Setting a plan
- Prioritizing
- Delegating tasks to others
- Controlling your environment
Wisely managing your time helps you stay focused on the work you need to do. Otherwise, it’s easy to get sidelined by extraneous matters, things suddenly put in front of you, or reacting to demands by others rather than completing your plan.
Unplug from technological stressors
Some of us are so addicted to our electronics without realizing it. So the next time you are in a meeting, take note of how often you pull out or look at your device every time it beeps or vibrates.
Of course, this is unavoidable with some types of work, such as in the case of medical personnel verifying a medication for a patient or an administrator giving someone permission to leave work early because of an emergency. But, in many if not most cases, it is purely because of a compulsive behavioral habit that formed over time and social pressures.
Try this for a couple of hours each day, turn off all electronic devices you have become codependent on. Take notice of your surroundings, study the faces of the people you work with. What color of eyes do they have? Do they look happy or troubled? Is there something you can learn about them that would help you work with them better?
Decrease your reliance on electronics and increase your human connection, which will help you be more resilient to all of the other stressors in your work and lives.
Meet with your supervisor
Indeed, it’s a conversation you probably don’t want to have. But, if you are struggling with stress, it’s vital to get help. So set up a convenient time for both of you and your boss to calmly discuss your feelings of being overwhelmed.
Be prepared to be completely honest about how the stress is affecting you at work as well as at home. However, keep in mind that you should approach the conversation with the objective of finding a solution and not just to list complaints about your job. If you do not have a good relationship with your boss, at least reach out to someone in your company’s human resources department.
“Stress is the trash of modern life – we all generate it, but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.” — Danzae Pace
There’s a lot to be learned about stress at work. And that includes learning how to manage it better and how it can affect your health. Therefore, if you are consistently feeling strained in your job, I’m so glad you are here looking for ways to relieve stress at work. Working with a coach is also an excellent way to learn additional ways to manage stress.
Hi, I’m Kris Henderson, LPC. I want you to know that I am here to help. If you want more personalized support, I invite you to contact me or schedule your phone call today. I’d love to offer you support and help you discover how to master anxiety and stress in the workplace, allowing you to have a happy and successful career.
This article originally appeared at KrisHendersonCoaching